The Wings of Freedom Volume One
by Shaded Truths
Summary: A nobody is the shell left behind when someone loses their heart. After a while a Nobody will regain the memories of its human life. However when one is found by the Organization who does not remember anything about himself, he desires to recover the memories out of his reach. He resolves to go on this journey, but the question is Will the Organization let him?
1. Prologue

**Hey readers. I am Shaded Truths and this story marks my foray into the world of writing fanfiction. I would have never gotten the guts to write this story if it weren't for my best friend, who threatened to do bad things to me if I didn't. I want to thank her and all of you who clicked on the story. I know that people don't normally like OC's, myself included, but I beg of you to at least give this a shot. Real Kingdom Hearts characters will be involved in this series frequently. This is also a crossover with Harry Potter, but I put it here because I know there are people who don't look at crossovers, and if I were to put every volume in it's respective crossover secton, this series would be all over the place. I warn you that Volume one will not be as good as the ones following, but I hope you can stick with me in this. Well, enough of my prattle, I give to you the Prologue of, The Wings of Freedom Volume One.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom hearts or Harry Potter, the only part of the story I own is my OC.**

Prologue:

Freedom. What is Freedom? Is it being able to do what you want, when you want to? Is it not having to be confined against your will in the place of your creation? Freedom is something that I have not obtained. No, I have been essentially confined to the fortress that is Castle Oblivion. An empty, monochromatic fortress that, before the days of the organization's occupation, had just been an empty place too close to the darkness. The pure, white walls with the even whiter decorations of fake flowers and pedestals of the inside of this empty place are the only things I know, besides the Organization.

The members of Organization XIII are the only people that I have had any form of contact or communication with since as far back as I can recall.

_I opened my eyes to nothing but white. It was so blinding that I had to close my eyes again. After another moment or two I tried to open them again, this time being significantly less traumatic on my sight. Gradually, my vision cleared and I was greeted with the sight of two people hovering at my side. Both male, wearing long black coats, and appeared to have noticed my awakening. I sat up and discovered that I was lying on a table that was as white as most of my surroundings. I took a look around and observed that I was in what appeared to be a laboratory of some sort. I saw computer monitors and tables lined with glass beakers and test tubes, as well as a huge white board with a myriad of indecipherable babble scribed on it. I turned my attention back to my observers who appeared to be just watching me take in my surroundings. As soon as I faced them I realized my strength was failing me and I fell back into a lying position on the table. One of the men, a tall, older looking man with long, blonde hair and green eyes was quickly by my side and had a hand on my shoulder to keep me from sitting back up._

"_You need to rest," said the man, "You are very weak right now."_

"_Where am I…? What happened to me?" I asked, realizing that I sounded drained._

_It was then that the other man, this one with tanned skin, orange eyes, and long, white hair that reached his shoulders spoke for the first time. I couldn't help but feel a modicum of worry looking at him. His entire being exuded something untrustworthy._

"_What do you remember?" the blonde asked me with a hint of intrigue in his voice. _

_I put my hand on my head for a moment and realized that I was wearing gloves. I glanced at myself and discovered that I was wearing the same black, hooded coat, gloves, and knee length boots the other two men were. Getting over the initial distraction, I set my mind to thinking about how I ended up where I was. After a minute I finally replied._

"_Nothing, I don't remember anything." I told them then I looked away, not noticing the smirk appear on the snowy-haired man's face._

"_Well then allow me to explain," the tanned skin man said, "My name is Xemnas. You are in Castle Oblivion."_

"_Well, Xemnas," I began, "How did I end up in this place?" I looked over at him and he retained a passive face._

"_I had just made my way to this castle in order to make sure my associates were moved in nicely and to check with operations in the castle." Xemnas explained, "When I arrived I was surprised to find you, unconscious, outside the entrance. When I checked you I called this man here, Vexen, to come and retrieve you to make sure you were all right. After all, beings like us have to help each other, seeing as no one else will."_

"_What do you mean, 'beings like us have to help each other'?" I ask._

That was the time that I had met Xemnas and Vexen. They went on to explain to me that I was a Nobody, something that was once human, but lost its' heart. The empty shell left behind. This was what my memory loss was attributed to, meaning that I had just been born as a Nobody. The fact that I could talk coherently meant that I had to have existed for at least a few days. That is what they tell me at least. I can't really explain why or how I know, but I knew almost immediately that I needed to watch myself around these people. After the initial conversation on Nobodies they had told me to go back to sleep and they would answer some more questions when I recovered.

_When I woke up I was alone in the lab. I sat up, this time with no problems, slid my legs off the table, and stood. After getting my bearings, I made my way to the door. After opening the door I ventured out and into a hallway. I shut the door and was about to head off in any direction when someone got my attention. _

"_Hey!" someone called. I turn around and see another person in a black coat, this one a blonde woman with green eyes and her hair done in a style so that it appeared as though she had antennae on her head. She quickly strode over to me and began to speak again._

"_So, your finally awake I see. I was just sent here by the boss to get you. Names Larxene." she said with what appeared to be a condescending look on her face._

"_Who is the boss?" I asked her, "Xemnas? Where is he? I have questions for him."_

"_Alright, alright." She replied with an exaggerated sigh, "Right this way. Now why don't you quit being rude and tell me your name."_

"_You're the one being condescending and I am the rude one? Huh?" I said with a monotone voice and a blank face._

_Larxene just glared at me, huffed, and started walking away. I followed her so she could lead me to Xemnas. After what seemed like forever, we made it to a large room. The room, unsurprisingly had white walls like the rest of the castle, and had random decorations spread around. We made our way across to the hall entrance on the other side when a third party decided to join us._

"_Ah! So the stiff's awake." We looked over and see a tall red headed man with spiky hair, green eyes, and what appeared to be green markings underneath his eyes. "Nice to see you up and about. My name is Axel, A-X-E-L, got it memorized?" he asked me._

"_Sure Axel. My name is-" I started then I realized, "I don't remember my name." I finished and looked away. Axel just sighs and puts his hands on his hips._

"_Well that is to be expected. Chances are with you being recently coming into existence and all; you probably don't have a name yet." He said to me, "No worries though, I'm sure the Superior will give you a name, He named all of us, Larxene, Vexen, myself, and the rest of the Organization."_

"_Xemnas did mention associates," I said, "That would be this organization right?" I asked._

"_Give the man a prize," Axel said with a grin, "You're quick, I like you already."_

_Larxene rolled her eyes._

"_Blegh. Axel shut the hell up and let's get going. We need to meet with everyone else and the boss." She huffed. "And of course I am the one stuck getting Mr. Comedian here, so can we just go. Talk on the way." _

_I looked over and Axel just looked back at me with an amused expression on his face._

_ We walked together in silence. After a while we made it to what appeared to be a meeting room. There was one long table with eight chairs, one on each end and three on each side. We walked in and Xemnas was seated on the end seat farthest from us. On his left in the first chair in the row of three was Vexen, and then, to Vexen's left was a huge man with slicked back, auburn hair that was oddly spiked, and blue eyes. He had angular features and appeared to radiate strength. To his left and in the final seat on the left row was a younger looking, smaller framed male with steel-blue hair with wavy bangs that completely covered one side of his face from view. He was staring at me with his visible aqua colored eye. On Xemnas' immediate right sat a tall man with feminine features, the most prominent of which was his ruffled, shoulder length, rose-pink hair, he also has blue eyes and light pink lips. This one made me uneasy. Although not as much as Xemnas did. I must have been good at hiding my apprehensions because no one appeared to notice._

_ Xemnas waved his hand and Axel and Larxene immediately took their seats. Larxene to the pink haired man's right, and Axel to hers. Then it was just me standing there alone while seven pairs of eyes examined me. Before the awkward atmosphere overstayed its' welcome Xemnas gestured to the empty chair on the end opposite him and between Axel and the younger man._

"_Please, do have a seat," he told me and I sat down, "Now then let me be the first to welcome you to our castle and convey how excellent it is that you are out and about."_

"_Thank you Xemnas." I replied politely._

"_Now then to get acquainted, You already know my name, and Vexen's, and you came with Axel and Larxene, so allow me to introduce, Marluxia," he gestured to the feminine man, "Lexaeus," then the auburn haired giant, "and Zexion," finally gesturing toward the aqua eyed man next to me._

"_Nice to meet you all, however I regret to inform you that I do not remember my name. For all I know I have no name to remember." I said keeping a straight face and looking them all in the eyes one by one. Xemnas then smirked, indicating his first expression since this meeting began._

"_I shall give you a name," He stated, "so then you will have something to be called."_

"_I would appreciate that Xemnas, I have been told you named all of the members of your organization," I said._

"_Indeed I have. Now a name is something sacred and should not be taken for granted. A precious gem in a being's existence. With his said you shall be so named," he then put his hand in the air and a translucent orange "X" appeared then silver letters circle around it so fast that I can't make them out. With a small twitch of his hand the letters stopped and my name was revealed._

"_Gnocx," I said._

"_A fitting name if I say so," Vexen stated, "You pronounce as 'nox' which hides the true meaning."_

'_Awfully cryptic,' I said in my head, thus adding to my suspicions. I awas pulled out of my thoughts when I felt Axel clapping my shoulder._

"_Congratulations new pal of mine," Axel congratulated, "Welcome to the fold,"_

The rest of the meeting included me agreeing to staying at the castle and using the time to try to adjust to my body and mind. That night I slept in a bed and not a table. Over the next several days I had to go through a variety of things. I needed to learn how to fight. I needed to be able to defend myself against the forces outside these walls. I trained with Axel and Lexaeus. During this training I realized I didn't need as much help as we first thought. It appeared that my human self was accustomed to fighting and my body remembers. In no time at all I am able to manifest my weapon just like Axel manifests his chakram and Lexaeus his axe sword. My weapon turned out to be two thin Rapiers. One had a black blade with a white hilt while the other had a white blade with a black hilt. Both had guards that are shaped like a wing. Both wings differed according to the hand I held them in. Left wing in my left hand and right wing in my right hand. I learned that I was fairly proficient in swordplay, however I was lacking in hand to hand combative skills. While I could use my legs pretty well, it appeared as though my body just wasn't wired for me to use fists.

Having really no need for the combat training. I took to learning magic under Zexion. Magic fascinated me simply with the unlimited possibilities of its' uses. The same principle with my swords came to apply to magic. Apparently whoever I was must have been someone who could handle themself. With magic taken care of I took to a myriad of activities like talking with Axel or Lexaeus and reading with Zexion in the castle's library. Marluxia and Larxene tended to avoid everyone, however no one minded. Shortly after the meeting where I got my name, Xemnas left to return to the main headquarters. After word I have had everyone fill me in on the organization, including the goal to get their hearts back. I suppose if I had a heart I would sympathize, but none of us do have hearts so feeling is out the window. Although there are times where Axel or Vexen will appear to genuinely have some sort of emotional reaction, we all know it isn't real. I found it better to just not bother with the act. It would only be a matter of time before the Organization completed its' goal and they all got their hearts back.

Five days after my awakening I had decided that it was time that I leave the castle and try to figure out who it was that I was before I lost my heart. However, things started going downhill fast.

"_What?" I asked._

"_I thought I made myself clear," Vexen coolly replied, "We are under strict orders to keep you here until further notice."_

"_Why?" I demanded with a slightly raised voice. Vexen sighed_

"_Because the Superior thinks that you would make a magnificent addition to our organization."_

"_But I don't want to be a part of the group." This got Vexen's attention._

"_We are all trying to obtain the light of Kingdom Hearts and restore our hearts. I believed that that is what you wanted as well is it not?" Vexen asked me._

"_I don't even know who I was before I lost my heart," I said, "I need to find out, so I am leaving to do this."_

"_It's not that simple," Vexen stated, eyes narrowing, "As I said we have orders, we will not just allow you to leave. There is no way you can fight all six of us. You do not even know how to use the dark corridor; therefore you have no way of getting anywhere."_

_I closed my eyes and looked down. All of my suspicions confirmed; for whatever reason they did not want me to leave the castle. I turned and walked out of Vexen's lab. As I reached it Vexen's voice fills my ears._

"_Even if you manage to get away, there is nothing that can be done. You can't run from the Organization. We will always find you and bring you back. Just keep this in mind." Vexen warned me then walked past me and out the door. I smirked. What Vexen didn't realize was that I didn't stop to listen to him. I stopped because, in one of the cabinets lining the wall beside his tables full of beakers and chemicals was a small blue item shaped like a star with one of the five points broken off and a yellow circuit in the center with a piece sticking out of the place the fifth point would be. With a formulating contingency plan in mind, I left the lab to go to the lounge._

During my readings with Zexion I would learn a few things, many of which included other worlds. One thing, however, that I came across was the methods of traveling between worlds. While there are many ways, such as gummi ships, dark corridors, and keyblades; I have access to no gummi ship, no keyblade, although if Axel's friend, Roxas, were here I could at least have one in proximity, and I never learned to use the dark corridor. I could've tried to after my confrontation with Vexen, but then it would have been too suspicious and no one would have taught me.

_I made my way to the lounge. I was about to go in when I heard voices coming from inside around the corner. I put myself against the wall and quietly moved closer to the corner. The voices grew clearer._

"_Xemnas isn't gonna be happy with this," said one of the voices. _

_It was one I didn't recognize, so I turned myself around and quickly looked around the corner. It was only a second but it was enough. Around the corner, Larxene, Marluxia, Lexaeus, Zexion, Vexen, and Axel were all in a semi-circle talking to an older looking man in the same black coat we were wearing. His hair wass black with gray streaks going through it. It was long and tied in a ponytail. He was wearing an eye patch over one eye, had scars in a couple places on his face, and his one visible eye was the same orange as Xemnas' eyes. Marluxia then spoke up._

"_Are you suggesting you are going to tell him Xigbar?" _

_Then it was Larxene's turn. _

"_Yeah, you gonna rat us out?_

"_As if, but Gnocx needs to be brought under control. It won't do us any good if he gets out of here. People could recognize him," The man labeled Xigbar said._

"_Then what would you have us do?" Lexaeus asked the man._

"_Do I have to spell everything out?" Xigbar asked in mock exasperation._

"_Apparently you do." Zexion piped in._

"_Fine, you six need to incapacitate him so Vexen can work on him. Voila! He's fine and perfectly docile. It's perfect. Besides, he'll still be ready for when Mr. Master needs 'IT' back."_

I hadn't stuck around to hear the rest. It was obvious that it was time to go. So then as I found myself running towards Vexen's lab I was trying to think of how I may have to fight my way past seven people. I reached the lab and dashed inside. Walking over to the cabinet I quickly located the star shard behind the glass windowed door. I pulled open the door below it and dig through a stack of papers. At the bottom was a medium sized box. I grabbed it and opened it. Inside was a small black pouch. This black pouch, which Vexen had spatially distorted on the inside in order to make hiding It easy, contained his research fund. I took the pouch and put it in the pocket of my coat. Then I covered my face with one arm as I use my other arm to smash the glass window of the door the star shard is behind.

I barely had time to grab the star shard when, all of a sudden, a series of alarms went off. I quickly pocketed the star shard with the little black pouch full of money, turned on my heel, ran out the door, and sprinted down the hallway toward the stairway. Vexen's lab was on the third floor, so I started my descent once I reached the staircase to floor two. Each floor of this castle is essentially one long hallway, with several rooms and smaller corridors branching off. I started the sprint down the seemingly, endless hallway to reach the stairs on the other side.

I had not expected my escape to go smoothly, so it came to no surprise when two dark corridors appear in front of me. The corridors disappeared and Lexaeus and Zexion appeared in front of me. I stopped and we had a stare down, all the while I was trying to formulate a plan to pass them. Zexion was a strategist like I am and Lexaeus was easily the strongest physically of any organization member, however his stature made him incredibly slow.

"Escape is impossible. Surrender now and you will not be harmed." Lexaeus told me, while manifesting his axe sword.

Zexion made no move.

"Awfully presumptuous of you Lexaeus," I said before vanishing in a flash. Their eyes widened briefly before Lexaeus spins himself around and uses his axe sword to block one of my blades. Anticipating attack not working, I pointed my other blade, the rapier with the white blade, at Zexion and shouted, "Stop!" before he could get himself away from me and he was frozen in time. With Zexion removed from the fight, I jumped away from Lexaeus and, took advantage of my speed, hightailed it towards the stairs.

I was about 20 feet away when, all of a sudden, I was hit in the back with something and I was launched forward. I managed to look behind me to see that, while Lexaeus was not fast enough to chase me, he was still able to use his affinity for earth and send a medium sized boulder hurtling at me, explaining what struck me. Unfortunately for both of us his boulder had enough strength to send me flying the remaining 20 feet to the stairs where I proceeded to attempt to right myself and failed, resulting in my flying down the staircase landing on it halfway through and tumbling down the rest of the way. I landed face first on the ground at the bottom of the stairs. I looked up to see the giant brown doors that lead to my freedom.

I stood up and started running toward the door. Once again my freedom was blocked when another dark corridor appeared and Vexen stepped out.

"Just you? Where are the others?" I ask.

"Marluxia is making preparations for a project we are working on, as is Larxene." Vexen explains with an uninterested look on his face, "They obviously felt you weren't worth the time. As for Axel, Why don't you turn around." My eyes widened and I turned around fast enough to block the chakram aimed for my face. I didn't give Axel a chance to recover and I disappeared. I reappeared behind him like a flash and struck; however, he is faster than Lexaeus and blocked my blades with one of his reclaimed chakram. Before I got a chance to get away he kicked me in the stomach, winding me, making me drop my weapons, and sending me to the floor. Using my momentum I roll myself back to my feet. Axel is on me before I can catch my breath and I dodge his strikes as quickly as I can. Unfortunately he managed to hit my shoulder. Puncturing it with one of the blades on his chakram and it starts to bleed. I flashed away just as he is about to attack me again. He gasps in surprise at this and turns to block at hit, however he is met nothing but air.

"Did you honestly think I would try the same thing twice?" I asked before I kicked him in the side. The kick sent him back a few feet and I held my open palm out toward him. "Freeze!" I shouted and a chunk of ice flew at him. He couldn't react and my spell hit him, Freezing his legs in ice and removing him from the battle. I needed to quickly dispatch Vexen before Axel thawed himself, so I turned my attention toward him and saw an ice spell flying at me. I manifested my black bladed rapier and knock the spell away. Vexen was physically inferior and his only real strength was his mind. Knowing this I charged. As I ran toward him, he raised his hand in the air and a big blue shield manifested on his arm. He then crouched down and slammed his other hand into the ground. From that point spikes made of ice sprouted from the ground in sequence making their way toward me. Rapier in hand I continued charging to meet the ice needles and then jumped, getting a good height and use a spell to light my rapier on fire. I swung it down and a wave of fire issued forth, destroying the spikes, extinguishing the spell on my rapier, and clearing a path. I landed and took off again. As I was closing in on Vexen he raised his shield above his head and his cloak flapped around him from the energy of the attack he is preparing.

His shield then elongated to about four times its' length. On closer inspection he used his power over ice to create an extension on his shield to make it into an ice blade. With his attack prepared he glided along the ground toward me. He went to swing and I ducked, the massive blade missing me by so little that I felt the bite of the cold on my skin. I raised my rapier to block the second attack, however Vexen was stronger than I estimated and he hit my rapier with enough force to knock it out of my hand. With a smirk on his face he brings the blade above his head, thinking he's won when I surprise him by jumping back. He brings the blade down creating a shockwave of ice where I was and the ice blade breaks. Seeing an opening, I recalled my black rapier and used it to slash at the air, a wave of black energy flew from my blade and hit Vexen sending him back. Then I dashed toward him, knocked him into the air, jumped, and finally used my legs to kick him in the chest. With a painful gasp, Vexen is sent through the big doors leading to the outside. With the doors open, I looked back to see Axel almost thawed out and Lexaeus and Zexion running down the stairs from the floor up.

Realizing my time is short; I ran out of the door and jumped over Vexen, who was unconscious from my attack. I ran on the path leading away from the castle. While running I reached into my pocket and pulled out the star shard. I needed to activate it so I started pouring my energy into it. While doing so the only thought on my mind was, _I don't care where you take me; just get me away from Organization XIII. _Then, as I felt the fatigue of my energy being drained, coupled with my bleeding shoulder, starting to get to me, the star shard started glowing. I stopped running and picked up the energy flow, pouring more in, desperate to get away. Finally, almost as if it heard my plea, a bright light enveloped me. The last thing I remembered thinking was that I was finally out of that empty place. I was free.

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**I hope that this wasn't to bad for you. Please leave a review, so I can improve on any mistakes. Remember that this is my first fanfiction... ever. Constructive criticism is welcome, but please, no flames. See you next Friday.**


	2. Chapter 1

**Hey Guys. As Promised here is The next chapter. I am happy I got three reviews, but I was hopig for more. That's alright.**

**Now, in regards to this story. I have this whole story finished and al chapters are edited. I have yet to start Volume 2.**

**Thank you to reviewers:**

**Persephone Rosamunde: (Yes I did publish lol)**

**Kira-Oni13: (Thank you for the compliment)**

**Dragondude3538: (-_-')**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or Harry Potter. If I did, We would not have to be waiting like 6 years for KH3. And If I owned Harry Potter, Different people would have died in book 7.**

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Chapter 1:

The first thing when I woke up is an overwhelming sense of cold. My body was shivering. I tried to open my eyes, but it was difficult to do; probably as a result from my recent energy exertion from the fights with the Organization members, and the activation of the star shard. When I was finally able to force my eyes open I noticed three things, one was that I was indeed on a new world, I couldn't make out much other than the fact that I was staring into the night sky. I saw lights from the corner of my eye, so I tilted my head to the side to see three people looking at me. The second thing I noticed was that I was soaking wet. I felt water dripping off of my face and flowing out of my ears. I turned my head further to look down and the third thing I realized was that I was floating in the air, moving toward the three people and that apparently I was being levitated out of a lake.

As I helplessly drifted in the air towards my rescuers, I saw that there was a man who looked like a giant, with dark colored hair that the night made it impossible to tell the precise color, and a full beard, covering most of his face. Standing beside him was a middle aged woman wearing emerald green robes, had black hair with spots of grey worn in a bun, and glasses. In her hand she was holding what appeared to be a stick with the tip lit. Finally standing next to her, on the opposite side as the giant, was an older looking gentleman in blue robes. He had long silver colored hair that seemed to glow in the moonlight, wore half-moon spectacles, and seemed to radiate an aura of power and wisdom. The old man was also holding what looked to be a strangely shaped stick and had it pointed at me. I could only assume that he wa the one levitating me towards them.

Eventually I was moved to them and placed into the arms of the giant man. As soon as I was settled he walked toward the castle. I turned to the old man who was somehow keeping stride with the giant.

"W-W-Where am I?" I was just barely able to speak because of the effects of the cold ravaging my body.

"Don't speak, just relax," he told me. "We just pulled you out of the lake. Go ahead and go back to sleep. We can talk when you are not at risk. Hopefully you haven't already contracted hypothermia."

"O-O-" I was unable to finish my statement as exhaustion finally subdued me.

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Albus Dumbledore had seen a lot of strange things in his 112 years of life. Being a wizard he was accustomed to such things, however having what appeared to be a shooting star fall into the Black Lake that sits right outside the illustrious, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is not a commonplace occurrence. As he sat at the bedside of the young man he discovered drifting on the surface of the Black Lake, he saw that the mysterious younger male looked no older than 17 or 18, had black hair that reached his shoulders and had odd vertical spikes with bangs that framed his face. The black coat he was wearing was removed so the nurse, Madame Pomfrey, could tend to the stab wound in his shoulder. After a blood replenishing potion and a pepper-up potion the stranger's face was not nearly as pale and sickly looking as it was when he was first fished out of the lake.

_It was an unusually cool, summer night nearing the end of July. Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, was making preparations for the upcoming academic year. At the moment he was strolling along the grounds with his Deputy Headmistress, Minerva McGonagall, in the direction of a small hut that is occupied by Hogwarts' Gamekeeper/newly appointed Care of Magical Creatures Professor, Rubeus Hagrid. The two reached the cabin and Albus gave the door an enthusiastic knock. No more than ten seconds later the door open to reveal the half-giant with a smile on his face._

"_Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall!" Hagrid exclaimed, "What brings yeh here this fine evenin? It's a bit late."_

"_Ah, good evening Hagrid. I am making final preparations for the start of term and I just wanted to check in and see how your lesson planning is going," Dumbledore told him._

"'_S alrigh' sir," Hagrid said, "Everythin's runnin smoothly an' I have the most fascinating creatures lined up to show my students. I can' wait." _

_Dumbledore and McGonagall shared an amused glance with each other at Hagrid's excitement._

"_That's most excellent news Hagrid, alas now I must get back to the castle and prepare the meal details for the opening feast with the house elves," Dumbledore explained. "Minerva and I will drop by for tea some other time."_

"_Tha's alrigh' sir. Duty calls after all," Hagrid said and waved to them as they turned around to leave._

_Hagrid moved to shut his door, but before he was able to close it he noticed something strange. _

"_Professor Dumbledore sir," Hagrid called._

_When Dumbledore and McGonagall turned they saw Hagrid pointing in the direction of the lake. Following his finger they found a strange sight. The three couldn't really explain what they were seeing other than calling it a shooting star, except that instead of flying a straight path through the sky, it was constantly changing directions as If struggling to decide where to go. Then they noticed that it was falling toward the lake and watched as it suddenly straightened out and shot into the lake._

"_Albus?" Minerva said inquiringly._

"_Let us investigate, come along Hagrid," Dumbledore ordered as he and the Deputy Headmistress started the short trek to the Black Lake. _

_After arriving at the edge of the lake Dumbledore pulled his wand out of his pocket, as did Minerva._

"_It is awfully dark. Why don't we shed a little light on this," Albus stated, then with a flick of his wand an orb of light manifested and with another movement he sent it towards the area above the lake where the unknown object hit. _

_As the orb grew brighter the surface of the water became visible. McGonagall and Hagrid gasped as the shape of a person was revealed._

"_Dear Lord, Albus!" She exclaimed, "There is someone in the water!"_

"_Yes Minerva, light your wand," he commanded, "Hagrid, be ready," he then told Hagrid as he made another movement with his wand. _

_The body slowly floated out of the water and hovered toward them. As the lifeless body got closer, it became apparent that it was a young, black haired man; he appeared to be breathing, so he was alive; however they needed to get him to the hospital wing. Dumbledore carefully brought the soaked lad to Hagrid so he could grab him and removed the spell. Immediately they all headed toward the castle._

_ As they walked Albus saw that the stranger was conscious and was looking at him. _

"_W-W-Where am I?" The teen weakly asked him._

_He was struggling to speak, no doubt because of the effects of being in the unusually very cold lake in the middle of the night. Albus looks at him and stated._

"_Don't speak, just relax,_ _we just pulled you out of the lake. Go ahead and go back to sleep. We can talk when you are not at risk. Hopefully you haven't already contracted hypothermia." Albus replied._

"_O-O-," he fell asleep before he could get a word out. The three managed to get him to the hospital wing where he was laid on a bed. Then they watched as Madame Pomfrey removed his coat. As it was removed they were shocked to see a bleeding hole in his shoulder._

"_Poppy," Dumbledore addressed._

"_Of course sir," Poppy replied, not needing any more instruction she headed over to a cabinet and pulled out two vials. _

_One filled with a red liquid, and the other with an orange liquid. She went back to his side and gave him the orange substance first. After it was forced down his throat his skin regained a little color and, strangely steam started coming out of his ears. Then she pulled out her wand and uttered various incantations that sent the blood pouring out of his shoulder back into the wound then the skin stitched itself closed. Not even leaving a scar. Finally she forced the red liquid down his throat and he regained a little bit more color._

_As she does this Albus grabs the coat that was worn and inspected the pockets, hoping to find something that could tell him who this young man was. He had no luck until he stuck his hand into one of the wet pockets. First he pulled out a small black pouch that was shut with a zipper. He handed it to McGonagall and she opened it. She found nothing inside except for strange orbs that were colored blue and yellow and vary in size. As she was rooting through the pouch, the headmaster threw his hand back into the pocket and pulled out a strange item. It was almost star shaped, blue with a yellow circuit in the middle. He stareed at the object a moment and then his blue eyes flashed in recognition. He put the star shard back in the pocket and retrieved the pouch from Minerva, understanding what the orbs were, and put them back in the cloak. _

_Then he took out his wand and gave it a wave. The coat was then dried and finally with a final point and a muttering of "Reparo," the hole in the shoulder was repaired. He then folded the coat and laid it on the stand next to the bed._

"_I do believe that he is in good hands," the old man told Hagrid and McGonagall, "Let us retire for the evening and then I will personally see to him tomorrow."_

"_Very well Albus," said McGonagall._

"_O' course sir," Hagrid annunciated. Then both turned and left Dumbledore in the room with Poppy and the intriguing guest._

As it became apparent that his school's visitor would not be waking up anytime soon, he was shooed out of the hospital wing so the teen could recover without hoverers. Leaving and heading toward his office, Dumbledore pondered who the young man could be and how he got a hold of something like a star shard.

* * *

The next time I regained consciousness it was because a light on my eyelids forced me awake.

I opened my eyes and quickly had to turn my head to keep the sunlight out of my eyes. Taking a minute to rub the sleep out of my eyes, I tried to think back. I remembered running out of Castle Oblivion, and activating the star shard. Then the details got fuzzy and all I could remember was feeling cold and the three people by the lake. Once the grogginess left me, I sat up and felt the blanket covering me fall off, I looked down and saw that I was in only my black pants. I looked to my left and saw my coat and white shirt folded on the stand next to my bed. I took my inspection back to myself and remembered that Axel had stabbed me, however when I looked at my shoulder there was nothing there. Just as if it never happened. As I touched where the wound should have been a voice grabbed my attention.

"Ah, Thank goodness you have woken up," The voice belonged to a plump middle aged woman in what seemed to be some sort of nurse's outfit.

She had Brown hair that was greying and brown eyes. She scurried over to me and started to inspect me, touching my shoulder and feeling my forehead. If I had a heart to feel with I would be unnerved, but I just acted polite and let her inspect me. When she had had enough she looked at me and asked how I was feeling.

"Uh… I feel normal," I replied, "Where am I? How did I get here?"

"Ah. Well you see you are in Hogwarts and from what I saw you had to be fished out of the lake."

"Lake?" I asked.

"Why yes. Now let me go fetch Professor Dumbledore. He is the man who brought you to me," she started to walk away only to stop. "Oh. I am Madame Pomfrey dear."

"Oh. Ok. I'm Gnocx." I replied.

"Gnocx, huh? I've never heard a name like that." She said as she continued onward and out of the room. After she shut the door I had decided that I was done with being half naked, so I reached over, grabbed my shirt, and pulled it over my head. I noticed that the hole in my shirt where I was stabbed was gone; _I'll have to ask about that. _I said in my head. I looked to my opposite side and saw a large window between my bed and the bed next to it, so I stood up and moved toward it to get a look at the new world I was in. When I looked out the window I automatically deduced that I was in another castle. Apparently it was called Hogwarts. I suppose it was a less dreary name then Castle Oblivion. Outside I could see parts of the castle and the grounds. The grounds were lush and green and the weather appeared to be pleasantly warm as the sun was shining and birds were flying, in flocks, through the sky. Once I had seen enough I turned to walk back to my bed only to see an old man walking into the room.

"Nice to see you up and about," the old man told me, "It is a relief to see you have recovered quickly.

"I assume you are Professor Dumbledore," I replied.

"That is correct. Might I have your name?" He asked me with a twinkle in his blue eyes.

"My name is Gnocx." I divulged. "Can you tell me what happened? The details are a little fuzzy."

"Of course," Dumbledore replied. "Myself and two others had to pull you out of the lake outside last night. You had been in there for a good fifteen minutes."

"That's strange," I said, at his quirked eyebrow I elaborated, "I am just wondering why I would've been in the middle of the lake."

As I was about to sit on the bed he astonished me.

"Star shards will drop someone just about anywhere." When he said this I stumbled in surprise. I looked over at him.

"How did you-"

"I took the liberty of taking a look in your pockets; I tried to find some form of identification and imagine my surprise when I find an activated star shard," he explained.

"You know what it is?" I asked him.

"I had the pleasure of being in the company of someone who used to use one about ten years ago. I do believe he was a king."

"So, then you know that I am not supposed to tell anybody that I am traveling on the worlds. World order and all that good stuff." I told him as if he didn't just blow my supposed secret out of the water.

"Of course, not a soul will know. Now, I do believe you need a place to stay until the star shard decides to act up again. Why don't I have you stay at this school," I looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Why would you offer it to me? Don't get me wrong I am grateful, but I am curious."

"Well I have always believed in helping those in need and it would be beneficial for you. If you stay here your pursuers can't find you." I was taken by surprise for the second time in five minutes.

"Ho-," I stopped myself and brought my hand up to my shoulder, "I suppose a gaping hole in my body would point to that scenario. Might I ask how I don't have a hole in my shoulder?"

"Ah, yes. That would be our very own Madame Pomfrey. We brought you here and she was able to fix you up with a little bit of magic."

"Magic?"

"You are familiar?" He asked and I held my hand out.

I concentrated for a fraction of a second and my hand ignited. I held the small fire that was engulfing my hand for a moment before I close my hand into a fist and extinguished it.

"Ah, that is different, we use wands." He told me as he pulled out the stick I saw him holding last night.

"I saw you point that at me. Was I being levitated out of the water or was I delirious?" I asked out of curiosity.

"It was no hallucination. I used a hover charm on you." He said with a chuckle.

"I assume that if I agree to your proposal, I would be learning, or at least attempting to learn, your wand magic."

"Well this is a school for witchcraft so the answer would be yes." After a moment of contemplation I made my decision.

"Very well Professor. I would be happy to attend until my star shard takes me away." I said with a nod.

"Excellent!" Dumbledore exclaimed. "Now I never told you, but my name is Albus Dumbledore, but for the sake of keeping your secret you will have to address me as Professor."

"I already had that figured out Professor," I told him.

"Of course. Now, term starts in two weeks, we need to get you supplies and a wand; however, I have an alternative, if my assumption of you having some sort of weapon hidden away is true." This time I was not surprised.

I figured most everyone who travels the worlds carries some way to defend themselves. I held my hands out in front of me and called my blades. They appeared in a flash of black and white light and Dumbledore inspected them.

"Very nice, with your permission I could turn them into a wand for you," He looked at me for a reply.

"Will I be able to turn them back?"

"Of course, I will spell it so when you and only you will it. They will change back and forth," he explained to me.

"Then you have my permission," I said as I stood and set them on the bed to the right of mine. Dumbledore then walked over and muttered something while waving his wand. I saw my weapons shimmer for a second before they merged together and shrank. The end result was a smooth metal wand with a white grip and black shaft. I took it up carefully and tested my grip on it.

"You keep it in your robes when we acquire them and if the students ask of it being made of metal. Tell them that it is just a metal casing to prevent it from being broken. Also don't worry about being tracked by your enemies. I can adjust the enchantments around the castle and grounds so that they can hide you." I looked at him with some suspicion.

`"You aren't even gonna ask about who is after me?" I inquired.

"Only if you want to tell me about them, although I wish to ask a favor of you while you stay here."

"And it is," I asked him, quirking an eyebrow.

He then went on to tell me about a man named Sirius Black who had just escaped from the wizard prison, Azkaban, and how he may be after one Harry Potter for revenge in regards to the death of a man known as Lord Voldemort. Apparently this Voldemort had tried to kill Harry as a baby and succeeded in killing his parents. However, when he attempted to kill Harry, his curse rebounded and destroyed him. Dumbledore continued to tell me that Voldemort is still alive, just incredibly weakened. The request Albus made of me was that I kept an eye on Harry during my stay and did what I could to keep him out of harm's way. I agreed to his request and then he told me of the process of sorting. The school sorts students into four houses, depending on their personality.

"Hold on," I interrupted him. "If I am gonna stay here and keep an eye on Harry, why not just put me in the same house he is. That way I could be around him most of the time."

"Brilliant idea," Dumbledore complimented me, "Then you will be in proximity at all times except for class. I can't place you in the same year. You are too old. 17 right?"

"Actually, physically I am 18," I corrected. "I'll explain another time."

"Very well, then I will place you In fourth year and make an announcement of you being a student who was educated at home before attending Hogwarts. You can attribute your lack of an accent by saying that you come from America originally and moved here when you were young."

"That is a simple enough story," I said, "I trust you will relay this story to the instructors?"

"Naturally," he quipped. "Well it seems that we have a plan, Gnocx."

"Agreed, all that needs done now is shopping for supplies. I can cover cost, I stole some money from my enemies before fleeing from the last world." Dumbledore chuckled at this.

"Is that why you were stabbed?"

"No. I was stabbed because I wanted to leave and they were not going to let me. They were plotting to incapacitate me and have one of their own do some sort of procedure to make me docile. Naturally I took a chance and escaped." I explained.

"My, that is unfortunate. Well as I said before you are safe here. Now if you want to put your coat back on, I can get someone to take you to get supplies. I would do it myself; however I have other affairs to attend to."

"That's alright, and by the way, thank you for getting me out of the water. If you tell me who helped you I will be sure to give them my thanks as well."

"If you insist, it was Minerva McGonagall and Rubeus Hagrid, both professors here. You will meet them when you start classes."

"Alright, I will talk to them later, and I think I will leave my coat here. There could be a situation where I need to use my blades. If that happens then I can wear that and no one will know who I am. Besides the two from the lake of course, then I can just ask for their silence." I explained this plan to him and he commented on how well I think ahead.

"I have to be cautious now that I have these people, the Organization, after me," I said in reply.

I grabbed the star shard and the pouch of munny, placed them in my coat, put it on, snapped my fingers, which caused my coat to vanish into dark wisps, and followed Albus as he lead me to my escort to Diagon Alley. I studied the features and décor of the castle as we walked and I found myself thinking, _this place could make for an interesting time._

* * *

__**Well, there it is. Please hit the review button people, they make me feel as though I am writing something that is actually worth the effort. As I said before, I have Volume One finished, and ready to post. I am updating weekly, so I have time to get ahead. I am going to start Volume 2 real soon... Anyway, see you guys next week. Oh, and make sure you sign the petition on Change (dot) com.**


	3. Chapter 2

**Well, Another Friday another chapter. As I said last chapter I have Volume One written and ready to post. To those few who have read and reviewed, I thank you. Once again remember that this is my first fanfiction, so I am a little green. Please review. I accept anonymous reviews. Help me to better my writing. And make sure you sign the petition on . There are hundreds of great works that will suffer if something is not done. I apologize for any grammar errors and if this chapter is a bit boring. Chapter three will be posted next Friday. This is the longest chapter so far and if I remember right it is the longest chapter of the whole volume.**

**Disclaimer: I hate doing this every chapter but better safe then sorry. I own nothing in this story except for Gnocx. If I did own Harry Potter, book 7 wouldn't have been open season on the good guys.**

* * *

Chapter 2:

Dumbledore and I were walking through the corridors of the castle and reached the sets of staircases.

"Watch your step will you," he warned me, "the stairs like to move, and there are trick steps so do keep your eyes peeled."

"If I didn't know better I'd say you were trying to kill your students," I said with a deadpan expression on my face. Dumbledore just chuckled and looked at me.

"Actually it isn't me," he explained, "You'll find in your stay here that the castle itself is at least a semi-sentient being." I met his gaze.

"I can't say I've ever seen something like that, although the world I stayed in before this one had a castle in it that could change its layout based on someone's memory of another place. I never personally used that feature, but it was something interesting to explore." I told him as we descended the stairs, "by the way, who will my escort be?"

"I believe I shall have Professor McGonagall go with you to procure your supplies."

"She is one of the ones who helped you, correct?"

"Yes, she is, she will be relieved to see you on your feet, although she may not say it." I let a smirk onto my face.

"I see. Anyway after I get my supplies will I come back here?" I inquired.

"Unfortunately no, I will have you stay at an inn above the pub, The Leaky Cauldron; it is there that Harry Potter is staying after a minor incident with the relatives he is staying with."

"What is a minor incident?" I asked, knowing he may be downplaying said incident.

"He lost control and unwillingly blew up his Aunt like a balloon. Although, as I understand it, he lost control because she was insulting his parents." He elaborated.

"That sounds like an interesting family gathering." I responded dryly.

"Yes, I agree. Afterword he fled his residence and ended up at the Leaky Cauldron, which is where he is staying until the end of August. Also that is how long you will stay. I recommend getting acquainted with him and his friends while you are there."

"That should be easy enough to do."

"Now that that discussion is finished, we have arrived. Just follow me," he instructed me as we walked into a room that we were about to pass.

Once inside we saw rows of desks that I could assume would hold the students. At the other end of the room there was the woman I saw on the lake last night. Albus knocked on one of the desks as we passed them in order to get her attention. It appeared to succeed as she looked up from the parchment that she was writing on.

"Oh, Professor Dumbledore," she addressed, "how is the morning treating you?" She appeared to have not noticed me.

"Just fine Minerva," he answered, "I would like you to meet our late swimmer, Gnocx." At this she looked at me and I threw a look at him.

"Hello, it's a relief to see you are well." She told me as she shook my hand.

"Thanks, and thank you for your help last night, Professor Dumbledore told me you helped him pull me out of the lake last night." I told her.

"It was not a problem," she said. Dumbledore then addresses her again.

"Our friend here needs a place to stay for a while, so he and I talked and I agreed to have him study here, he has quite a magical talent and I am willing to help him learn even more. Therefore, I wish for you to accompany him to Diagon Alley in order to retrieve supplies. Then he will rent a room at the Leaky Cauldron until the day he needs to catch the train," he told her.

"Oh," she replied with raised eyebrows, "Well we can go right now if you wish. I have nothing to do that can't wait a few hours."

"Ah, yes," Dumbledore said with a smile, "now, I have removed the apparition prevention for the moment Minerva. You can apparate with him to Diagon Alley. He has the funds for the supplies all he needs are directions."

"Of course," she said as she walked around her desk to stand in front of us. She held out her arm in front of me, "Take my arm." She told me. I looked at it for a second then hesitantly reached out and touched it.

As soon as I had a good grip I felt like I was being sucked through a narrow tube. The feeling persisted until we found ourselves in the middle of a street. I didn't have time to think about it because I stumbled and struggled to fight away the nauseous feeling I had. I felt a hand on my back and I turned and looked at McGonagall.

"Apparition has that effect on everyone the first time. In fact I am surprised you did not throw up," she explained.

"Well aren't I just the lucky one?" I replied. Finally regaining my equilibrium,

I followed McGonagall to a store that had a sign naming it, Madam Malkin's Robes for all Occasions. We went inside and got the attention of a woman whom I assumed to be Madam Malkin. She took notice of us and hurried over.

"Ah, Professor," she greeted McGonagall, "how may I help you today?" McGonagall then gestured me forward and introduced me.

"This is a new student and he is in need of robes," McGonagall stated. The woman then came and grabbed my hand.

"Alright then, this way dear so I can get your measurements."

She then had me step on a stool and proceeded to have a tape measure take my sizes by itself as she wrote them down. Then the arduous process of having them made and fitted occurred. I was able to keep still when she accidentally stabbed me with a pin multiple times. After what felt like forever, my robes were made and packed so I could carry them with me. I pay for the robes out of my pouch, the munny automatically converting to whatever currency I would happen to need in any distinct world. At McGonagall's inquisitive look I whispered to her.

"I'll explain in a minute." She nodded and we headed out of the shop. I lied to her and told her that my money is spelled to take on the form of the orbs she saw as a safeguard incase my pouch gets stolen. The spell won't work on anyone else, so it'll just look like they stole a bunch of useless marbles.

After my explanation she asked if I knew the spell, to which I replied that I didn't and the person who spelled it died. We then made our way to a store called Flourish and Blott's where I decided to get the first four sets of books in order to try to catch up to the other students that I had to masquerade with. After purchasing the textbooks we headed into another shop, so that I could buy a trunk to keep everything in, although it wold be useless in the long run because I couldn't take it all with me when I eventually had to leave this world. Our final stops were to just get parchment, quills, ink, and potions supplies. Afterword she made to walk to the wand shop, Ollivander's, but I stopped her and tell her that I already have a wand.

"Well, if you have everything now then you can head to the end of the alley and book a room for yourself. I will be seeing you in two weeks Mr. Gnocx, be ready to work," she told me before she pointed me in the direction of the Leaky Cauldron and took her leave.

I headed in the path directed to me and eventually I made my way through a wall into a darkened, dirty looking pub. I walked up to the bar and am greeted by a bald man with a hump in his back.

"I need a room," I told him, "I'll be staying for two weeks."

"Student are you?" At my nod he reached under the bar and pulled out a key. He told me what I owed and I quickly paid him, wanting to get out of the smelly bar area.

He then lead me up a set of stairs away from the bar. At the top of the stairs, there was a hallway. There were several rooms lined up and a couple hallways branching off. He took me to the closest room and opened the door. I walked in and set my trunk down. Then I looked around. It was a small room with a bed and stand with a small lamp on it. There was a window that had a view of the muggle London streets. Then a foot away from the door there was a wardrobe that looked like it was about to fall apart. I looked out the window and saw that the sun was about to set. I looked away, moved my trunk to the foot of my bed, and opened it to take out the textbooks for the first year. I threw the history textbook to the side because in hindsight it was unnecessary to buy.

I started with charms and sat up through the night trying to perform the ones that at least seem important like levitation, and leaving ones out like the tickling charm out. I got through about 60 percent of the book and I noticed that it was dark out and the moon was halfway across the sky. The spells I tried to perform were, for the most part, a success. I theorized that this is because of my experience in using the wand less magic that I use. I decided to pack it in for the night, so I could use the whole day tomorrow to get more done. Hopefully I could get myself to be at least semi-competent before term so I wouldn't stand out more than I already did.

I awoke at about nine the next morning and realized, with help from my traitorous stomach, that I had not eaten since the day before I fled Castle Oblivion. So I cleaned myself up and left my room to see if I could get something at the pub downstairs. I locked my room and pocketed the key before I headed down the stairs. Once downstairs, I walked up to the counter and asked for a menu. With that in hand, I sat down at a table close by to peruse it. I decided on the cheapest thing offered and made my order. Within the next hour I had received my food and ate it as quickly as I could without making myself look like a slob. I paid the man and left to head back to my room to cram. I busied myself with rifling through my pockets for my room key; as a result I hardly noticed when someone bumped into me. I looked up and to see the person that ran into me on the floor. I offered my hand and he took it. It was a boy, younger than me with messy black hair and glasses that looked to be in disrepair.

"Are you alright?" I asked him when he got to his feet, "I apologize, I should have been paying more attention to where I was going."

The younger kid looked up at me and I noticed he had green eyes and a scar on his forehead that is mostly covered by his bangs.

"No, no," he said to me, "it's my fault; I was in too much of a hurry and to the shops."

Then he noticed my wand that I carelessly left sticking out of my pocket, I must have pulled it out partially while searching for my key.

"You have a wand," he noted, "are you a Hogwarts student?"

"Uh... Yeah," I replied as I took my wand out of my pocket, "I am starting this year, I was homeschooled, but it wasn't very good so I am starting in fourth year in an effort to catch up. My name is Gnocx, who are you?" He blinked at my question and replies.

"I am actually surprised you didn't recognize me. Most everyone in the wizarding world does. I'm Harry, Harry Potter." He held his hand out.

"Oh," I replied, "well it's nice to meet the famous Harry Potter."

"Well I appreciate you not getting all fan-like about it." Harry told me.

"Well I would think that you would get tired of it and just want to be spoken to like a normal kid right?" I asked as I started to walk to my room. "Why don't you eat dinner with me downstairs later and we can talk like normal people and suffer through substandard food?" I offered as a way to get in and to lighten his mood. He laughed a little bit and accepted my offer. I then headed back into my room to resume my two week cramming session.

My dozens of hours of reading with Zexion during my internment in Castle Oblivion have paid off. There was no other way that I could have sat in my bed for seven hours and plowed through a set of textbooks trying to learn magic that I had no use for other than to keep my cover. I finished the first two years of charms books, and had a little laugh when I came across a spell that is pronounced like my name. At the moment I was putting my things away and was about to leave to meet Harry in the pub downstairs. As I turned to open my door I heard a tapping noise from the window. I looked over and saw a brown owl tapping on my window, asking for entrance. I obliged and opened the window seeing the letter on its foot. As soon as I took the small envelope the bird gave my gloved hand a nip and sat on my bed. I shut my window then set the letter in the drawer of my nightstand. I looked at the owl and assumed that it was waiting for me to write a reply. I told it to wait until I got back and that I would bring it food. It gave a hoot as a reply and I left.

Downstairs I saw Harry waiting at a table with a menu in his face while one sat in front of the chair across from him. I hurried, took my seat, and plastered on a smile.

"Sorry I'm late," I apologized, "I lost track of time because my nose wouldn't come out of my textbooks."

"It's no problem," he told me, "I just got here. You're reading your books already?"

"Just as review," I clarified, "I want to make sure I am prepared to go into Hogwarts this year and not look like an incompetent."

"I'm sure you'll do fine," he tried to assure me.

The whole meal was like this. We had random conversations and I said things that made me seem normal. He told me about his horrid family and how he came to stay at the Cauldron. I told him a story about how I had been homeschooled since I was 11 and how I was originally from America and came to England when I was very young. When he asked about my parents I told him that they were away on business. After we ate I offered to pay the bill and he reluctantly accepted. Then he offered to buy me food tomorrow and, seeing the opportunity, I accepted. I grabbed the piece of bread that I had left over and we headed up to our rooms. We said our goodbyes and we headed into our separate rooms. I tossed the bread to the owl and it proceeded to pick it apart.

"You make a mess and I will make a mess out of you." I threatened it but with no real intention of maiming the poor bird. Instead I scratched its head as I pulled open my drawer and grabbed the letter. Seconds letter I was reading through it,

_ Dear Mr. Gnocx_

_ I assume that you are familiar with the creatures of darkness called the Heartless. I am writing to ask you a favor. I failed to mention as a result of some miraculous slip of my mind, probably due to our riveting conversation, that, while my barriers are powerful, once in a while a few heartless will appear in and around the castle. It has only started recently, I believe as some consequence of Sirius Black's escape. My favor is that I wish for you to assist me in fighting them off. We can talk more at the start of term. Happy studying._

_ Sincerely,_

_Albus Percival Wulfic Brian Dumbledore_

I pulled out a piece of parchment and I wrote a short reply.

_Professor Dumbledore_

_ I have no problem taking care of any heartless that may decide to be foolish enough to show themselves. I will also attempt to investigate the cause of their appearance. Also, as much as I hate to say this, I think it would be more efficient of you to inform the teachers of my 'situation.' I feel that it would make my job easier if I didn't have teachers mistaking me for an intruder while I am disguised in my coat. More so the point that McGonagall and Hagrid would recognize me. If I have the teacher's support then it will increase the effectiveness of my work._

_ All best, Gnocx_

I sealed it in an envelope and attached it to the owl's leg, then opened the window so it could leave. Once it did, I sat on my bed and pulled my third year charms book out; along with my wand and spent a few hours going through it. I was done at about one in the morning and then I set it aside and shut off my light. I laid in the bed and was asleep within 20 minutes.

The rest of the week went in a pattern of cramming, cramming, eating downstairs late in the evening with Harry and us taking turns footing the bill, and finally more cramming before I go to bed. The break in the routine came a week before the term began. It was small, but someone had knocked on my door in the middle of the day. I look over with a raised eyebrow.

"Coming." I said before putting my open third year defense against the dark arts book on the bed. I walked over and opened the door. Harry was standing in the doorway with two ice cream cones in his hands.

"Harry," I said, "what's up?"

"Obviously I brought you ice cream," He answered with a playful smirk. I laughed and took one of the cones I moved aside to let him in.

He shook his head however and says, "No thanks. The ice cream is a thank you for keeping me company while we've been here. I don't want to interrupt you and I need to go and pick up some more things today. I will however meet you tonight and I can teach you about exploding snap." I thanked him again and he left. I shut the door and made quick work of my chocolate ice cream before hitting the books again.

I finished my cramming three days before I had to leave for the train station. I let my curiosity get the better of me and I spent one of the days exploring the rest of Diagon Alley, as I did not when I was purchasing my supplies. That was how I spent day one. Day two I just ate up time with Harry. We met a few of the other kids from the school who were there getting their supplies at the last minute. Harry told me he had been hoping to run into his friends at some point, but had yet to do so.

On the day before we were supposed to leave for the station I had packed everything and had thought to offer to take Harry for ice cream seeing as how he had made a point to buy me some a week ago. I left my room and headed across the hall to his door. I knocked, but received no answer. _He must be out_, I thought as I decided to just go to the alley anyway. I had thought about heading to find someplace else for lunch because I was getting tired of the bar food at the pub. I was about to pass Florean Fortesque's Ice Cream Parlor when I heard my name being called.

"Gnocx!" I heard a familiar voice yell.

I looked over into the ice cream parlor and saw Harry waving at me to come join him and two others. A redhead with freckles and a bushy haired girl. I assumed them to be Ron and Hermione, so I put a smile on and I walked over to them. I reached them and sat in a chair that Harry had pulled up for me.

"Gnocx, this is Ron and Hermione, those friends I told you about, and guys, this is Gnocx. He is staying in the room across mine at The Leaky Cauldron. He is the one I told you was keeping me company while I've been here." Harry introduced me and I shook Ron's hand.

"Nice to meet you two," I said as I shook Ron's hand, then I moved to shake Hermione's.

"A pleasure." Hermione replied.

"Did you get your studying done?" Harry asked me.

"Yeah, I finished two days ago." I told him.

"Studying?" Hermione asked, interest obviously peaked.

"Bloody hell here she goes," Ron muttered only to receive a glare from Hermione. I had a small laugh at their antics before I turned to Hermione.

"I was homeschooled before this year. I decided I wanted to come to a regular school, so here I am. My curriculum was shoddy at best so I am starting off in fourth year until I catch up. At the end of this year if I am deemed sufficient I will be moved to the year I am supposed to be in," I explained, "I have spent the last two weeks reviewing the material in the books for the first three years. So I can make sure I can start with the fourth year level, luckily learning magic is second nature to me."

We talked a little more about academics and I told them that I have already been sorted into Gryffindor house. After a while we decided to head to the pet shop nearby to grab some tonic for Ron's rat. When he showed the rat to the clerk she asked what its power is. Ron replied that it didn't have any and she told him that it wasn't commonplace for a garden variety rat to live more than three years. I found this to be odd. It didn't help that the thing seemed hell-bent on avoiding me. Every time I got near it would scurry up Ron's sleeve slowly or try to hide behind his arm. The strangest thing however was the darkness that I sensed from it. I filed those thoughts away for later as we leave the store, Ron had gotten his tonic and Hermione had bought a cat that had tried to make Scabbers its dinner.

"You bought that monster!" Ron exclaimed.

"He's gorgeous isn't he?" Hermione asked, seemingly ignoring Ron. To me the cat was one ugly thing but I had enough tact to not say anything.

"Hermione, that thing nearly scalped me," Ron complained.

"He didn't mean to, did you, Crookshanks?" Hermione asked the ugly cat.

"What about Scabbers?" Ron asked, pointing to his chest pocket, "He needs rest and relaxation! How is he gonna get it when that thing is around?"

"That reminds me," Hermione said, "you left the tonic." She said pulling the vial out of her pocket and handing it to him. "Stop worrying. Crookshanks will be sleeping in my dormitory and Scabbers in yours, what's the problem? Poor Crookshanks, that witch said he'd been there for ages; no one wanted him."

"I wonder why?" Ron said sarcastically as we set off toward the Leaky Cauldron.

Once we entered the trio walked toward the bar, I followed. There was a red haired man reading a copy of the _Daily Profit. _He looked up from the paper and spotted us.

"Harry!" he said, smiling, "How are you?"

"Fine, thanks," said Harry, as he Ron and Hermione sat with him he said, "This is Gnocx, he's been hanging with me while we've been here." I shake the man's hand.

"Arthur Weasley," he says to me, "nice to meet you Gnocx. Thank you for being so good to Harry. We all know he needs more people like that."

"Uh… Thanks." I say a little taken aback. I wasn't expecting the man to say something like that. I take my seat next to them and then Harry notices the picture on the newspaper.

"They still haven't caught him then?" Harry asks, referring to Sirius Black.

"No," Arthur replied gravely, "They've pulled us all off our regular jobs at the Ministry to try and find him, but no luck so far."

"Would we get a reward if we caught him?" Ron asked out of the blue, "It'd be good to get some more money-"

"Don't be ridiculous Ron," Mr. Weasley interrupted appearing very strained.

"It's highly unlikely that Black will be caught by a thirteen year old." I said.

"Gnocx is right," his father nodded in agreement, "It'll be the Azkaban guards that catch him, you wait and see."

At that moment the others looked toward the entrance and I followed their gaze to see a redheaded woman come in with shopping bags, followed by a pair of twins, an older teen that appears to be the same age I was physically, and a girl who appeared to be maybe 12 years old, all red headed. They walked over to us. The little girl took one look at Harry and her face turned red she only muttered a greeting to him before the oldest one went up to Harry and shook his hand.

"Harry, how nice to see you," the teen said in greeting. Harry looked as though he's trying not to laugh.

"Hello Percy," Harry replied.

"I do hope you're well," The teen named Percy replied in a snobbish manner, making me want to roll my eyes.

Then I noticed the badge on his chest that said Head Boy. Just as Harry started a reply Percy was shoved aside by one of the twins.

"Harry!" the twin said louder than necessary while performing a deep bow, "Simply splendid to see you old boy-"

"_Marvelous," _The other twin said pushing the former aside and grabbing Harry's hand, "Absolutely spiffing," he said no doubt making fun of their now scowling older brother.

"That's enough now," the woman said.

"Mum!" the first twin shouted as if she just arrived. Grabbing her hand he said, "How really corking to see you—"

"I said enough!" the Weasley matriarch said while putting her bags in a chair. "Hello, Harry dear," she greeted, "I suppose you heard the news," she said while pointing at Percy, "Second head in the family," She stated with pride.

"And last," the first twin muttered.

"I don't doubt that," Mrs. Weasley replied. "I noticed you two haven't made prefects."

"Why would we want to be," said the second twin looking revolted, "It'd suck all the fun out of our lives." The girl giggled.

"You should set a better example for your sister!" Their mother snapped at them.

"Mother," Percy addressed, "She has other brothers to set an example for her. I'm going to change for dinner." He then walked upstairs.

"We tried to shut him in a pyramid," the second twin said to Harry, "Mum caught us though."

"Who is this," Mrs. Weasley asks Harry, Ron, and Hermione as she was the first to finally notice my presence.

"This is Gnocx," Ron answered his mother, "He's been staying here the past two weeks."

"He's been keeping me company," Harry explained, "He's actually a pretty cool guy." I looked at him at that. Once again not used to having people say anything positive about me; or anything at all really.

"Hello dear," she greeted me, "I'm Molly Weasley, Arthur is my husband, The one who went upstairs is Percy, my son, the twins are Fred and George, she points them out so I know who is who, then you know Ron, and this is my daughter Ginny."

Fred and George clapped my shoulders and Ginny waved at me, her shyness gone.

"Nice to meet you all," I said with a smile.

"Now," she said, "Let's get dinner, Tom has put three tables together for us. Harry, Hermione, and Gnocx, you are all too thin, so you are getting a proper meal tonight if it kills me." Mrs. Weasley said as she put a hand on Harry's and Hermione's backs and she pushed them into the next room with the tables. Next thing I knew I had a set of matching arms looped around mine and I had the twins dragging me into the other room with the others.

"Come on Gnocx," Fred said, "let's get some food in you. Our mother will hunt you down if you don't."

"She's always like that by the way," George explained to me, "She sees Harry as another son and she hates that he has to live with his aunt and uncle."

"I heard about them," I told them, "It must be awful."

"It probably is," They said in unison, "But he always is happy around his friends so it's worth the wait for him."

I looked at Harry and noticed he was indeed very happy surrounded by his friends. It was the happiest that I had seen him in the few short weeks that I had known him.

After dinner everyone was very tired. One by one everyone went to bed. I was one of the last. I left and Harry followed. Once we were heading up the stairs he spoke.

"Sorry to kind of force you in there," he told me, "I know it must of felt awkward being in the middle of a bunch of people you don't know."

"You didn't do anything," I replied, "The twins grabbed me and dragged me in. It was nice, they didn't treat me like a stranger."

"They are good people, the best part is they don't care that I am 'The Boy Who Lived' all they see is Harry."

"I can see where that would be nice." I told him as we reached our rooms, we stopped when we heard yelling in the room next to Harry's. It was just Percy demanding that his Head Boy badge be found and Ron telling him to shove it. Harry then went back to the parlor where we had dinner to get the tonic that Ron forgot, again. I told them goodnight and headed into my room. Once again I found myself asleep fairly quickly.

The next morning was, in one word, chaos. The Weasley clan were all running around trying to get everything situated for the car ride. I was already prepared and headed downstairs trunk in hand. I passed Harry on the way and he stares at me.

"What?" I asked him with a raised eyebrow and blank face.

"How are you not breaking your back or arms? That trunk must weigh a ton with all the books in it." He observed. I cursed myself for not thinking of that. Attributing it to a lack of sleep I replied.

"I am older than you, you know?" I told him with a little bit of fake sarcasm in my voice, "I have always been used to lifting heavy things, this isn't all that." I said as I walked past him. "I'm gonna go Harry. See you on the train." As I said this Mr. and Mrs. Weasley came down the stairs and appear to have overheard what I said.

"Nonsense dear," She accosted me, "You can ride with us in the car."

"I don't want to be a bother Mrs. Weasley, I have money I was just gonna grab a cab." I was once again surprised at how kind they were being to me.

"Oh posh," She said as she reached me and pushed me toward the others, "The car is free because of Arthur's work at the Ministry, and it is spelled to accommodate as many as we will need. One more won't hurt."

"I wouldn't fight her Gnocx," Hermione said as she comes down the stairs with her trunk, supplies, and cat.

"Yeah," Ginny said coming right behind her, "You've been sucked in. Just go with it." The others laughed as Molly gave her daughter a pointed look.

"Come on everyone time to go," Arthur called from the pub entrance.

We all filed out and piled into the car. I stayed and helped Arthur and a man that I presumed to be our driver put the trunks in the back of the car. The ride itself was pretty uneventful. Fred and George were antagonizing Percy while Ron and Harry laughed. Hermione was talking to me about all of her classes and how excited she was. Ginny was petting Crookshanks and talking with her mother. For some inexplicable reason I found myself smiling at the picture. This moment was almost enough to make me forget about the Organization.

We arrived at the station and the ministry workers found us all trolleys and unloaded our trunks onto them. Then Mr. Weasley stayed glued to Harry's elbow as he and Mrs. Weasley led us to a pillar in between platforms nine and ten. Harry and Mr. Weasley then walked to the pillar and through it. My eyes widened for a second but it was long enough for Hermione to see it.

"I had the same reaction the first time I saw it," she told me as Percy and Ginny went through next. After them the twins went then Ron and Hermione then Mrs. Weasley went through with me.

On the other side of the pillar I was met with the sight of a huge, scarlet, engine. We made our way to the cars attached to it and we loaded our trunks into the side. Mrs. Weasley ushered us onto the train as Mr. Weasley took Harry aside. I got on and waited with Ron, Hermione, and Ginny. Harry got on as the train starts moving. He whispered something to Ron and Hermione.

"Go away Ginny," he commanded his sister, "sorry mate, but you too." I raised my eyebrow at this and turned to walk away with Ginny.

"Hold on Gnocx," I turned around and look at Harry.

"Yeah."

"You can sit with us if you want," he told me. At Ron and Hermione's look he said, "I trust him guys." I raised my eyebrow at this as well but followed them. We found a compartment occupied by a sleeping man. Harry sat next to him while Ron sat across from him by the window, I sat by the door and Hermione sats in between us.

"Who do you think that is?" Ron asked, referring to the sleeping man.

"Professor R.J. Lupin," Hermione and I said at the same time. We looked at each other.

"How do you know that?"

"His suitcase" Hermione says and I nodded in agreement.

Harry and Ron took a look at the suitcase in the compartment above him to confirm it.

"Wonder what he teaches," Ron mused.

"There is only one position open," Harry stated.

"He must be the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher," Hermione finished.

Harry went on to tell us a conversation he overheard between The Weasley parents and what Mr. Weasley said to him before he boarded. At the end we all had surprised looks on our face, although mine was fake.

"Sirius Black escaped to come after you? You must be very careful this year Harry," Hermione warned.

The conversation continued with the three of us warning Harry and him assuring us he'd be fine the conversation stopped when a sort of whistling was heard.

"What was that?" Ron asked. I stood up and looked up at the bags.

"It's coming from your bag Harry." I said. He reached up and pulled a spinning object out of the bag.

"Is that a sneakoscope?" Hermione asked interested. Harry put it away before it could wake Professor Lupin up.

"What was that?" I asked them.

"It is a sneakoscope," Hermione answered, "It is supposed to activate when someone

untrustworthy is near." That slightly unsettled me although I didn't show it. The conversation took a turn towards Hogsmeade village. That was the topic for a while.

Hours later the sweet car came around. I bought nothing but Harry bought a bunch for himself and the other two. After she left a few more hours passed and it started raining. The door opened again and there were three boys. One blond and two bulky dark haired kids who had an air of self-imposed superiority.

"Well, if it isn't potty and the weasel," he said condescendingly, "Heard your family came into a bit of money over the summer. Did your mother die of shock?" Ron and Harry threw glares in his direction. It was then that the blond noticed the teacher and me.

"Who are you?" He asked. I just stared. He became frustrated and sneered, "What? Too stupid to speak, or do you know to not speak to your superior—"

"I suggest you leave before you wake the new teacher up." He just looked at me in indignation but realized that he couldn't start a fight in front of a teacher. He then left.

"Nice one," Ron said.

"There was nothing to it." I told him, "You just have to use your head." More time passed by and the train came to a halt.

"We can't be there already," Hermione said, looking at her watch.

The train jerked and we almost fell out of our seats.

"What's going on?" Ron asked.

"I'd like to know myself." I said.

I was about to stand up when I was attacked with a feeling of dread. It fely like something cold was pressing into me trying to suffocate me.

I looked over and noticed Ron's hand on the window, and the window was icing over. We heard something outside and kept still. After a minute the door cracked open and a mutilated hand came through it. The hand pulled the door the rest of the way open and floating in the doorway was a creature I have never seen. It was covered in a cloak, so we couldn't see what it looked like. It turned toward Harry who was growing paler and advanced toward him. I tried to get up, but something happened. My head exploded in pain and I had to grab it with my hand that was not squeezing the life out of my leg. The pain is the only thing I can concentrate on and then all of a sudden I hear it.

"_What have you done with my friend?"_

"_What have I done? Master, I just—"_

"_Master Xehanort, why?"_

I held my head trying to block out the noise when, all of a sudden, it stopped. I looked up, still with a headache to see the creature gone, Professor Lupin standing with his wand out, and Harry unconscious on the floor.

_What the hell was that?_

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**Some plot development there at the end. Finally getting it started. It will take a while for the point of the series to emerge. Something relevant to the plot will happen at the end of the next chapter. Please leave your thoughts. See you all next week.**_  
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	4. Chapter 3

**Hello everyone. Here is chapter Three. I apologize if some people find it boring, but like I said last chapter... There is a major plot event at the end of the chapter. I have not started Volume Two because I've been having trouble with starting it; however, I have thought of an idea for it in the last couple of days. Anyone care to take a guess at which world will be next? Anyone except Persephone Rosamunde and DragonDude3538 can guess. Again. Please review! They make me feel good. I accept anonymous reviews. This is the shortest chapter yet, so I apologize, although I think last weeks more than makes up for it.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or Harry Potter, if I did then we wouldn't be waiting this long for Kingdom Hearts III. The only thing I own is my OC.**

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Chapter 3

I was snapped out of my daze when I felt a hand on my shoulder and saw a piece of what looked to be chocolate in my face. I looked at the owner of the hand in my face and saw it was Professor Lupin.

"Here, eat this," he told me. "It'll make you feel better."

"Thank you," I replied, as I took it and quickly shoved it down my throat.

Almost immediately I feel a warm feeling permeate through my whole body and the cold feeling from the creature was gone, along with the remnants of the headache it gave me. Before I could contemplate the voices I heard I hear Hermione yelling Harry's name.

"Harry! Harry wake up! Are you alright?" She is slapping him in order to rouse him.

I get up and move to stand beside Lupin behind Ron and Hermione, who were kneeling beside him. He had slipped out of his seat into the floor. He finally opened his eyes and slowly sat up.

"W-What?" he mumbled.

Ron and Hermione then hauled him up back into his seat.

"Are you okay?" Ron asked.

"Yeah," he answered. "What happened? Where's that—that thing? Who screamed?"

At this the other occupants of the room look at each other.

"No one screamed," Ron said, a little more nervous than he already was. He looked around at the rest of us and Lupin broke off another piece of chocolate.

"Here," he said, handing Harry the chocolate. "It'll help."

Harry took the chocolate but did not eat it.

"What was that thing?" he asked Lupin.

"It was a dementor," Lupin replied. "One of the dementors of Azkaban."

We all stared at him as we let that piece of information digest. He saw that Harry had not eaten his chocolate yet.

"Eat," he repeated. "I need to go talk to the conductor."

He walked out of the compartment. After he left Ron and Hermione turned back to Harry.

"Are you sure you're alright?" she asked.

"I don't get what happened." he replied.

"Well that thing-the dementor-stood there and looked around," Hermione explained. "At least I think I did, seeing as how we couldn't see its face, and you-"

"I thought you were having a fit," Ron interrupted. "You sort of went rigid and fell out of your seat. Then you started twitching—"

"And Professor Lupin stepped over you, and walked toward the dementor while pulling out his wand," Hermione picked back up. "And he said we weren't hiding Sirius Black under our cloaks and when the dementor wouldn't move he used some sort of spell and shot some silver thing that chased it off."

"Did you feel how cold it got when it came in?" asked Ron. "I felt weird, kind of like I'd never be cheerful again."

"Did any of you fall out of your seats?" Harry asked.

"No," Ron replied. Then he looked over to me. "Gnocx sort of went into a trance though. We were calling your name, but you acted like you couldn't hear us."

"I'm not sure what happened," I explained "I remember the cold feeling and then I got a splitting headache. I'm not surprised I didn't hear you."

"That's strange," Lupin said as he came back into the compartment. "I've never heard of the dementors giving someone a headache before. Is that all that happened?"

I looked down and thought. I definitely do not want to say I heard voices because that will lead to them asking questions; which is something I cannot afford.

"No," I finally said. "Just cold and a headache."

Seeming satisfied, Lupin then turned to Harry.

"I didn't poison it you know," he told him.

Harry ate the chocolate and his skin regained a little bit of color.

"We will arrive in ten minutes," he said. "Are you alright?"

"Fine," Harry replied, obviously embarrassed.

The last portion of the ride was ridden in silence; we arrived and quickly vacated the train. It was freezing on the platform as a result of the rain that was pelting us. As we started walking away from the train we heard a call.

"Firs' years this way!" a voice boomed.

I look over with the others and see the person who carried me up to the castle that night. He looked over at us.

"All righ', you three?" he asked them.

They nodded and turned to leave. He then noticed me and got a quizzical look on his face. I put a finger to my mouth when the others were turned and then mouthed the word later. He just gave me a slow nod and I walked to catch up with the others. They led me along a muddy path leading to rows of stagecoaches that had nothing in front of them. Not sure of what was going on I just followed the golden trio into a stagecoach. As soon as I shut the door behind me and took my seat, the stagecoach started moving on its own. We rode in silence up to the castle.

As soon as we came to a stop, I got out of the coach, Ron and Hermione followed. As soon as Harry got out we heard a familiar drawl.

"Is it true that you actually fainted on the train, Potter?" The ferret-faced kid from earlier plowed through Hermione to block Harry's way to the staircase leading to the castle's entrance. His eyes were glinting maliciously and he had a jovial look on his face.

"Shove off, Malfoy." Ron said with gritted teeth.

"Did you faint as well Weasel?" Malfoy prodded. "Did the scary dementor scare you too? What about you, mudblood, and you plebian?"

I just rolled my eyes, much to his chagrin and turned to leave.

"Is there a problem?" Lupin asked as he happened upon us.

"Oh, no-er-Professor," Malfoy replied with an insolent stare and a dose of sarcasm in his voice.

He smirked and led his two sheep up the stairs. We finally joined the crowd and made our way through the giant oak doors. The four of us then started toward the entrance to the great hall when Professor McGonagall strode towards us.

"Potter! Granger!" she called. "I want to see the both of you."

They both had looks of foreboding as they fought their way over to her.

"There is no need to look so worried," she assured them. "I only want a word. Off you go then Mr.'s Weasley and Gnocx."

Ron stared at her a moment then looked at me. I just turned around and headed toward the hall and to the Gryffindor table.

After we sat down, Professor Dumbledore stood and announced that the sorting would begin. I watched, intrigued as the first years were brought in and then made to sit on a stool and try on an old, pointy hat. The hat would then call out a name of one of the houses where then the student would sit. The sorting ended quickly enough and as the stool was taken away, Harry, Hermione, and Professor McGonagall came back into the hall. The professor then split off from them to head back to the staff table. As Harry and Hermione made their way over to our table, people had started pointing at Harry as he passed.

_Word travels fast. _I thought as they joined us.

"What was that about?" Ron whispered to Harry as he sat.

Harry started to whisper back, but was interrupted as Dumbledore stood and began to speak.

"Welcome," he began, "to another year at our wonderful school. I have a few things to say to you all, and as one of them is very serious, I believe that it is best to get it out before we are befuddled by our fantastic feast…" He cleared his throat then continued. "As you will all be aware after their search of the Hogwarts Express, our school is playing host to the dementors of Azkaban, who are here on the business of the Ministry of Magic." He paused. "So I must make clear that no one is to leave the grounds without permission. Dementors are not fooled by disguises or tricks, or even invisibility cloaks. It is not in their nature to distinguish an enemy from a bystander, so I ask that you do not give them a reason to harm you. I look to our prefects and new Head Boy and Girl to keep you all in order."

Percy, who was sitting down the table from us, puffed out his chest. Dumbledore then looked around the room and picked up again.

"On a happier note, I wish to welcome two staffing changes this year," he began, "the first being Professor Lupin, who will be holding the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."

The only people who clapped were the students who were in the compartment with him and a few others who were scattered throughout the hall.

"Look at Snape!" I heard Ron whisper to Harry.

I followed their gazes to a man on the staff table with black, greasy hair, black robes, and a crooked nose. He was seething at Professor Lupin.

"As to our second change," Dumbledore continued, "I am sorry to tell you that Professor Kettleburn, our Care of Magical Creatures teacher, retired last year in order to spend more time with his remaining limbs. However, I am delighted to say that his post will be filled by none other than our very own Rubeus Hagrid, who has agreed to take on this post in addition to his duties as gamekeeper."

At this, the golden trio gives each other stunned looks. Then they joined in the tumultuous applause congratulating Hagrid. I look over to Hagrid and see he is smiling and red in the face. Also he is wiping his eyes with the tablecloth.

"We should've known!" Ron explained. "Who else would assign us a biting book?"

"Biting book?" I ask with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah!" Ron answered. "The bloody things try to eat our hands every time we open them."

"You don't have his class Gnocx?" Hermione asks me.

"No," I replied. "The extra classes I took are Divination and Ancient Runes."

"Oh," she said. She is about to say more, but Dumbledore starts speaking again.

"Well, I think that is everything of importance," he said. "Let the feast begin."

Then I was mildly surprised when all of the dishes on the table were suddenly filled with different foods. Harry and Ron immediately load their plates and dig in ravenously. Hermione just glares at them as she loads her plate. I grab a few things and dig in.

The trio finishes their food quickly; my only guess is because they want to speak with Hagrid to congratulate him. Soon enough the food all disappears and Dumbledore gives us the word to take our leave to the dormitories. I stand up with everyone else and I start to follow the crowd, however I am stopped by a hand gripping my wrist. I turn around and see that Hermione is the culprit.

"Come on, we want to introduce you," she tells me.

And with that I am led up to the staff table.

"Congratulations Hagrid!" Hermione squealed as they reach the table.

"All down ter you three," Hagrid said as he was wiping his teary face with his napkin. "Can' believe it… great, Dumbledore… came straight sown to me hut after Professor Kettleburn said he'd had enough… it's what I always wanted."

Then he looked at me.

"Hagrid, this is Gnocx," Harry said. "He's new this year, and he's cool so we wanted him to meet you."

I decide to make a move. "He already knows me guys."

Hagrid nods as the others gape at me.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Ron asked.

"Well, I came here before the term started to talk with Professor Dumbledore about coming here and, as a result of a series of unfortunate accidents that are too embarrassing to repeat, I ended up taking an unplanned swim in the Black Lake in the middle of the night. Hagrid helped me out of the lake and into the castle where Madame Pomfrey saw to me," I explained.

They look at me with curious looks.

"I never thanked you for that. So, thank you for not letting me drown," I said with a smile.

He looks at me and I give him a look that says 'go with it'.

"You're welcome," Hagrid said. "I wouldn't be a very good teacher If I let the students catch their death."

At this point Professor McGonagall comes over and orders us to bed. I turn on my heel and leave. The others follow and we make our way up the staircase until we reach the crowd of Gryffindors in front of the portrait of a fat lady.

"Password?" She asked us.

Percy forces his way through the crowd and gets to the portrait.

"The new password is Fortuna Major!" Percy shouts so we can all hear.

"Oh no," said a kid I learned was named Neville Longbottom.

Apparently his memory is horrid and he never remembers the passwords. We then enter the circular common room and immediately most of us disperse to go to bed. I am among these. I say good night and walk up the stairs to the fourth year dormitory. I open the door and walk into a circular room with beds lined up. One of them has my name on it. I lie down, cover up, and try to sleep. The silence brings the perfect opportunity for the memories of the train ride to come back. I think of those voices I heard and the only thing I conclude is that my memories are returning to me. I am getting closer to finding out who I was. With these thoughts in mind I drift into unconsciousness.

I woke up the next morning fairly early. I sat up and saw that I was the only one awake. I get out of bed and move to my trunk to get out a set of robes. I quickly change clothes and close my trunk. I am about to leave when I notice a folded piece of paper on the stand next to my bed. I pick it up, open it, and read it.

_Gnocx_

_I would appreciate it if you were to come to my office before breakfast. I wish to discuss the matter I addressed in my last letter. My office is on the second floor. Get access to the door behind the gargoyle._

_All best,_

_Professor Dumbledore_

_P.S. I do rather enjoy butterscotch suckers._

Seeing the P.S. as a message I crumple the letter and walk out of the room. As I am walking down the stairs I set the note on fire, getting rid of it. I walk through the empty common room, out the portrait hall, and down the staircase until I get to the second floor. Once I get off the stairs and head through the door, I see the gargoyle at the end of the corridor. I stopped in front of the gargoyle and stared at it. The door was being blocked, so what I had to do was obvious.

"Butterscotch suckers," I said.

As soon as the words leave my mouth the statue comes to life and moves away from the door. I walk through it to meet a set of stairs. I follow those to another door. I knock and hear Dumbledore telling me to enter. I open the door and see him sitting behind his desk. The room is large and he has various little trinkets and decorations spread around and the walls are covered with different portraits. I walk up and sit in the chair in front of his desk. He looks at me and gestures to a bowl on his desk.

"Lemon drop?" He offered.

"No thanks," I told him. "Now, about the heartless."

"Ah, yes," he said. "Have you any thoughts as to why they are here?"

"I have a few theories," I replied. "If I am right, the dementors have been here since the summer right?"

"Yes… I figured you would draw the same conclusion I have."

"When the dementor came into our compartment on the train I felt a dark energy come from them. If you want the heartless gone, then getting rid of them is the logical course of action. I can help keep them out as long as I am here. I can sense if any heartless enter the castle," I explained.

"About that," Dumbledore started. "I have made Professor's McGonagall, Hagrid, Lupin, and Snape aware of whom you are. As per your consent in your reply to my first letter. They understand and will stay out of your way in the case of an attack."

"Alright then," I told him. "I don't see any problems until people start seeing a hooded figure walking around the castle, but that is easily dismissed because I plan to not make myself seen, if possible. The only other thing is that if the people I escaped from follow me here, however you said I can't be found here, so that is off the table."

"As long as we have this under our thumb we will be fine," the headmaster assured me. "If there are heartless I'll trust your abilities at discretion. You may go to breakfast before you are missed."

"Thank you Professor." I said. I get up and walk out of the office.

I find the golden trio at the Gryffindor table comparing schedules. Ron seems to be spazzing out about Hermione's.

"Hermione, there must be a mistake," he said.

"Nonsense Ronald," she said, completely brushing him off.

"What is it?" I asked as I sat down.

"Here, look," he handed her schedule to me. "She has three classes scheduled at the same time. Someone messed up."

Indeed she had Divination, Muggle Studies, and Arithmancy all at nine o'clock.

"Hermione?" I asked her, handing her schedule back.

"What's it to you if my schedule is a bit full?" she asked Ron. Then she turns to me, "I have it all worked out with Professor McGonagall."

We are interrupted as Hagrid comes into the hall.

"All righ'?" he said eagerly on his way to the staff table. "Yeh three are in me firs' ever lesson! Righ' after lunch! Bin up since five gettin' everythin' ready… Hope it's okay… Me, a teacher… hones'ly…" He grinned at them and headed to his seat on the staff table.

"Wonder what he's got planned," Ron said nervously.

"We need to go," Harry said, standing up. "Divination is in the north tower. It'll take ten minutes to get there."

With that they stood up and left.

After they are gone McGonagall came to me with a paper in her hand.

"Here is your schedule Mr. Gnocx." She handed me the paper and I give it a look.

I have potions first thing and then Defense Against the Dark Arts, and then Divination at the end of the day. I have a half hour, so I head back to Gryffindor Tower and grab the books I need. I then make my way to the potions classroom in the dungeon.

Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts were nothing but introductory lectures. Professor Snape was very crude and blatantly obvious in his dislike for Gryffindor. He took 15 points off of Cormac McLaggen when he came in 15 seconds late, but ignored it when a trio of Slytherins came in five minutes late.

Professor Lupin is a different story. He seems to be Snape's polar opposite, he was polite and very professional despite his appearance of worn out, hand me down robes. After class he asked me to stay behind so he could have a word.

"I was wondering if I could ask you about the episode with the dementor," he said.

"I already told you all that happened," I said.

"And I believed you, that is until I found out that you are from another world," he said quietly. "Did the dementor have another effect on you?"

Deciding just to talk I start to explain.

"Do you know about the Heartless?"

"Yes… Professor Dumbledore explained them to me. Darkness in people's hearts made real, correct?"

"Yes, however do you know about the other half?"

He looks at me quizzically.

"When a person loses their heart, if they had a strong will the body left behind starts to act on its own. We call that a Nobody," I explained.

"I see," he said. "What does that have to do with anything?"

I just look at him for a moment before a look of realization appeared.

"You're a—"

"Yes, I am," I conceded to him. "I am an empty shell of a person who was turned into a Heartless. However I am trying to figure out who I was. When the dementor came into the compartment I got the headache I mentioned, but I also heard voices. I theorize that some of my memories have been brought to the surface, although I don't recognize anything from them. It was all voices and a name… Xehanort. I need you to tell no one. The fact that you people know about other worlds is dangerous. I can't risk anyone else knowing. It could mess up the natural order of things. Imagine if someone like Voldemort were to know."

"I see what you mean," Lupin said. "Very well. Not a word. Now get to lunch before you are missed."

I get up, grab my bag and head toward the door when Lupin calls.

"Gnocx!"

I turn.

"I hope you find what you're looking for."

I just stared for a moment before giving a slight nod and leaving.

Lunch was uneventful. I ate with the golden trio and their friends. I didn't stay long, I told them I had divination and didn't want to be late. I spent ten minutes climbing stairs until I reached the north tower. I was met with a golden trap door in the ceiling. As I approached it opened and a silver ladder made its way down to the floor. Taking the cue, I grabbed ahold and climbed. I ended up in a stuffy room. I quickly took my seat at a table with some other Gryffindor's.

"It is nice to see you all have returned, as I knew you would."

The people at my table all rolled their eyes. Then the professor stepped into the open. It was an older woman who reminded me of a bug. She had untamed hair, and huge glasses over her bug eyes. She gazed all around the room and stopped to make predictions about relatives or pets. This was the case until she turned to me.

"I see we have a new face, one that I admit not even I foresaw," she said waving her arms dramatically.

Right about now I am wondering why in the hell Dumbledore put me in this class with this crackpot. She moved closer as If she was inspecting me. I inched my body away from her as she approached. Then after a moment she backed off and told us to take out our books and had someone from each table grab a tea set from the cabinet, so we can do a review of reading tea leaves.

The tea was brewed and we all drank until all the cups had were the leaves in the bottom. I then swapped with some guy at my table and tried to discern something from the mush in the bottom of his cup.

"You getting anything?" he asked me.

"No," I replied.

After a few minutes Trelawney comes over to our table and makes a point in snatching my cup from the poor kid I gave it to. However, almost as soon as she touched it she started convulsing. The rest of my table backed off, but I stayed with a mild curiosity. I had felt some sort of strange energy emanating from her. Almost as a result of some sort of instinct I reached out to her. I didn't get far when she jumped back and threw her head back.

"_THE LOST ONES MUST BE FOUND,_

_IN THE PLACE OF THE ANCIENT BATTLE,_

_13 AND 7 SHALL COME TOGETHER,_

_TO END THE WAR THAT SPLIT THE REALMS,_

_THE REALM OF DARKNESS HOUSES ONE,_

_THE SECOND IN THE KEY,_

_THE THIRD TRAPPED IN DARKNESS'S GRASP,_

_HIS HEART MUST BE RETURNED,_

_BY THE ONE WITH THE WINGS,"_

It was dead silent after she finished speaking. She spoke in an inhuman voice. I looked around and saw that all the students were gazing at me. I heard Trelawney coughing and I looked back at her. She was looking at me.

"Is everything alright dear?" She asked me.

"Do you seriously not remember what just happened?" I asked her with an emotionless expression.

Her look changed from concern to genuine befuddlement.

"Whatever are you talking about?" she queried.

I just turned and grabbed my bag.

"Forget it," I told her as I walked out of the class, ignoring her calling after me.

I heard the calling stop as I headed down the ladder. I can only assume that one of the kids will tell her what happened; however the only thing on my mind as I head to the main staircases is that I need to have a word with a certain eccentric old man.

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**And there you have it. What did you guys think of the prophecy? I warn you that the main plot of the whole series will be slow developing, but I think it could be worth it. You would not believe the ideas floating around in my mind. If anyone has been wondering as to how many volumes there will be. The answer is that I don't know. I have worlds planned for Eleven Volumes and there are more I want to do. We'll just have to see. See you guys next Friday! Review!**


	5. Chapter 4

**Hello again readers. Another Friday another chapter. I forgot to mention last time that the Prologue, Chapter One, and Chapter two were self edited. Chapters Three through the rest of this fic have been edited by my bff Persephone Rosamunde, so Thank you my bff! You are the best!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own HP or KH, I just borrow the characters for a bit and play puppetmaster.**

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Chapter 4

I was not surprised to see Dumbledore did not appear to expect me when I went into his office. Before he said a word I was already up to the front of his desk.

"Is there a problem?" the confused old man asked me.

"Why did you place me in the Divination class?" I answered his question with my own.

"Did something happen?" he asked.

"I'm sure you know the answer to that, although I am certain I took you by surprise by coming here when I am supposed to be in said class," I said, my voice never changing and my face remaining expressionless.

Dumbledore wove his fingers together and peered over his glasses at me.

"She made a prophecy, didn't she?" he inquired, closing his eyes.

"As you knew she would," I affirmed. "She grabbed my teacup and not even two seconds later she is convulsing and spouting off some foresight that surely has something to do with whomever the hell I was. Is that why I was put there?"

"What was the prophecy?" he asked.

I repeated the prophecy to him and he had a thoughtful look on his face. He rose from the desk and started pacing his office.

"I would be lying to you if I told you I know what the prophecy foretells. I am certain that it has something to do with you, whether it be who you were, or who you are now," he explained.

"I'm sure that if and when my memories start to return the prophecy will be clear," I replied. "I apologize for disturbing you, Professor, but if you decide to make moves, I would appreciate a little warning."

"Your request is duly noted," he said with a smile. "Have a nice day."

"You too, I suppose," I mumble as I exit the room and headed to the Great Hall.

The first thing I noticed as I enter the dining hall is a crowd building at the Slytherin table, and at the epicenter is a smug looking Malfoy who has his arm in a sling and a cocky look on his face that is made worse as he is doted on by the sheep in his house. I look over at the Gryffindor table where the trio was looking over at Malfoy with nervous looks on their faces. I venture over to them and take a seat.

"What's with the crowd?" I queried.

"Malfoy made a fool of himself and is making it look like Hagrid got him hurt, that bloody git," Ron answered.

"What happened?" I asked.

They told me about their Care of Magical Creatures class. Apparently Hagrid had them looking at hippogriffs, a creature that, by description, sounds like some half bird-half horse thing. He had Harry interact with one by him petting it and then riding it around the area. As soon as he landed, the rest of the class tried to mingle with them when Malfoy insulted one of them, which resulted in that hippogriff scratching his arm. Malfoy then proceeded to play it up and act as if it had nearly torn his arm off. No doubt it is an attempt to cast doubt on Hagrid and garner some attention from his blood sucking housemates. I decided to ignore them and turn my attention to my dinner.

A little while after, we all headed up to the common room and we started doing homework for our respective classes. After spending a moment thinking about how I never imagined myself ever doing homework, I busied myself with it. I noticed that while the others tried doing their Transfiguration homework, they kept sneaking glances out the window toward Hagrid's hut outside.

"Well," Ron said, breaking the silence. "You can't say it wasn't an interesting first day back."

"I don't know if I'd call what happened with Malfoy interesting," I told him.

"That wasn't all though," Ron announced. "That crazy old bat, Trelawney predicted Harry's death in Divination this morning."

I looked up from my parchment and looked over at Harry who rolled his eyes, as well as Hermione.

"That old fraud couldn't make a prediction if she looked at the weather report for the next day in the Daily Prophet," she huffed.

Ron rolled his eyes and moved to whisper to me.

"She's just miffed that Trelawney told her that books wouldn't help her in the class," he explained to me.

Hermione gave him a look that would have withered me if I had a heart to feel scared with.

"There is still a light on in Hagrid's window," Harry said, breaking the tension.

Ron then looked at his watch.

"It's not too late," he explained. "We can go see how he's doing really quickly."

"I don't know," Hermione muttered slowly.

"I can go out onto the grounds," Harry grumbled, "Sirius Black hasn't gotten past the dementors, has he? Gnocx, want to come with us?"

I look up again and ponder a moment, before rolling up my parchment and putting my supplies in my bag.

"Sure, it's better than sitting here doing homework," I followed them out of the portrait hole. We didn't meet anyone on the way down to the entrance hall. I had just made it out the door when I was forced to stop. I looked back in the castle where I got an unmistakable blip in my senses.

"In the castle?" I whispered.

Unfortunately I was heard as the three stop and looked back at me.

"What about in the castle Gnocx?" Hermione asked me.

I needed to hurry, so I said what came to me first.

"I just remembered something I need to take care of. Can you tell Hagrid it'll be okay for me and good luck?" I asked.

"Uh… Sure," Ron replied, "what's up?"

"It's nothing to worry about," I answered as I started backing away. "I just need to meet with Professor Lupin. He asked to see me before curfew. I'll see you guys later."

I turned and walked away faster. They stood there, staring, for a few seconds before heading in the opposite direction toward Hagrid's hut. When they disappeared I started running up the stairs. When I was sure no one was around dark wisps appeared around my body and got thick enough to cover me before dispersing, revealing myself in my black coat. I pulled my hood up as I followed my senses to the second floor. I opened the door to reveal the long corridor leading to Dumbledore's office. I moved in and shut the door. The first thing I noticed is that the gargoyle statue that is in front of his office took on a more ominous presence.

I walked slowly down the hallway, but before I could get too far, black, humanoid, creatures started to appear out of the ground, as if the very shadows had come to life. Eight shadow heartless, in all their twitching glory, started to surround and circle around me. After a moment one of the ones on my left decided to lunge for me. I easily jumped over it and dispatched it with a fire spell from my hand. I landed in the same space I was, only for four more to lunge from all sides. I held my hand up and spun 360 degrees. My white bladed rapier appeared and the four heartless were nothing but dark wisps. The remaining two were together behind me, so I just dashed forward and slashed them in half before they had a chance to move.

With that group of heartless defeated I turned my attention back to the statue, only to realize that it wasn't there anymore.

"What?" I said before I was blown back by a gust of wind.

I quickly recovered and landed on my feet before looking up to see the statue, although it was now black instead of its normal color, had the heartless insignia on its chest, and it was in fact alive and flying. The gust of wind was caused by the beating of its wings. Before I could make a move it dived toward me and barely missed with a swipe of its claws. I rolled out of the way and swung my sword, sending a wave of energy after it. The beast rolled in the air to dodge it and dived toward me again. This time I was unable to dodge quickly enough and I was thrown into the wall. I fell to the ground, but was able to get back up.

I decided to end it before the fight caused too much damage I readied myself for the next charge. The heartless, being the mindless creature it was, did indeed charge again. I ran to the wall and jumped. I used my legs to kick off the wall and propelled myself into the air above the beast. I timed my jump right and landed on its back where I held out my hand that did not have a weapon.

"Freeze!" I said.

A small ball of ice formed and flew out of my hand, freezing one of its wings. With the wing frozen it was unable to stay airborne so it fell to the ground. I jumped off before impact, and when it crashed into the ground its frozen wing shattered into an incalculable number of pieces. The heartless roared in pain and I appeared in front of it. I called my second blade and crossed them in front of me. I raised them above my head before swinging them both down, creating a wave of energy shaped like an x. My attack hit the heartless, and knocked it back several feet. I followed it and, before it could recover, cleaved off its other wing. I then jumped on its back and used my rapiers to pierce the heartless's head. It didn't make a sound as it vanished in dark wisps.

With the fight over I no longer felt any heartless in the castle. I dismissed my weapons and banished my coat. I surveyed the damage caused by the fight. The only noticeable difference was an indentation in the wall where my body impacted when I was thrown. I turn to leave when I notice that I had an audience.

"That was impressive," Dumbledore praised as he with Professors Snape, McGonagall, and Lupin walked toward me. "Although I see that I will need to procure a new statue to guard my office."

"You need to fix the wall too," I added as I started to head toward the main staircases. "You don't the students to see a Gnocx shaped indent in the wall."

Dumbledore gave a little laugh as he pulled out his wand and muttered the reparo spell. The wall seemed to inflate to fix the indentation I left. I could feel Snape's, McGonagall's, and Lupin's stares as I left the floor.

"It would seem as if I left the safety of the school in very capable hands," Dumbledore told the others when I disappeared from view.

I stopped and forced myself against the wall, so I could hear what was being said.

"Are you sure it wise to keep him here, Headmaster?" Snape asked the old man. "We just saw what he did to that creature. Who is to say he won't do the same to the students."

"Nonsense Severus," Lupin stated indignantly in reply. "That young man's stay is temporary. What would he have to gain by turning on us?"

"It is trusting fools such as yourself, Lupin, that allow criminals like Sirius Black to wander among the common folk. Knowing you, you are probably hiding the man out of some past sentiment for the old days." Snape said, and I could hear the sneer that was undoubtedly on his face.

"I don't like what you are im-" Lupin started, but is interrupted.

"Enough!" the Headmaster admonished. "This infighting is something that we do not need. Now if you excuse me I believe I will retire."

At that, I headed up the stairs and made my way to back through the portrait hole and into the common room where the golden trio was sitting.

"Where have you been?" Ron asked when he saw me, making the other two turn toward me.

"I told you guys before that I had to meet with Professor Lupin," I answered.

The trio looked at each other with wary glances, obviously something was wrong.

"We saw Professor Lupin though," Hermione said. "On our way back from Hagrid's, we passed him and Professor's Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Snape. There was a ruckus on the second floor and they went to check it out."

"Yeah, I swear we heard something like a roar when we passed that door," Harry said, "We would have checked it out, but they came and told us to head here."

I kicked myself for forgetting that Lupin was with the other professors as I sat down next to them.

"We heard it too," I told them. "Lupin told me to sit in his office until he came back, and he went to investigate. He must have come across the other professors on the way."

"You're bleeding," Hermione said to me.

"What?" I ask, confused.

"On your face," Ron clarified. I took my hand and wiped along my cheeks, and sure enough it resulted in a streak of blood that I hadn't realized was on my cheek. I figured that I got nicked by the statue heartless's claw and not noticed in the adrenaline rush.

"I ran into Peeves on the way back," I quickly dismiss. "He threw things at me; I think one of them was a screw."

They seem to buy the excuse as they switched the subject and recalled their visit to Hagrid's. Hagrid was drunk and wallowing in his own misery. He didn't even recognize that they were there until he realized Harry was. He then promptly brought them back to the castle. After the discussion we broke off and went to work finishing our homework. I was the first one finished, so I bade them goodnight and headed up to bed.

The next few days were quite uneventful. I followed the routine of classes, meals, and homework and socialization. I learned, however, that Sirius Black had been sighted by a muggle in a village that was not too far away from here. The thing Harry was the most unnerved about was not the fact that he was spotted, but the fact that Malfoy made it clear that, apparently, Black did something to warrant a desire for revenge from Harry. Ron told him to forget about and assured him that Malfoy was just lying to rattle him. I was not too sure, and I am sure that Harry thought the same.

A week into term I had a Defense Against the Dark Arts class. That day Lupin had asked us to meet him at the entrance to the staff room. The class arrived, followed soon after by Lupin, who let us in. The thing that drew everyone's attention was a wardrobe that was sitting in the center of the room. Lupin then got our attention.

"Can anyone tell me what a Boggart is?" he asked of us.

One student slowly raised her hand. He gestured to her.

"A Boggart is a shape-shifter that turns into the worst fear of the person close in proximity to it," she explained.

"Correct!" he exclaimed. "Now, with that in mind, can anyone tell me the advantage we currently have over it?"

"There are too many of us," I answered immediately without prompting. "The boggart wouldn't know what to turn in to."

"Excellent!" he affirmed. "Now I want everyone to repeat this spell after me… _Riddikulus."_

"_Riddikulus," _we repeated.

"Very good," Lupin said. "Now I want you all to line up. When I open this wardrobe I want you all to imagine what it is that you fear most, and then to imagine something to make it funny. Laughter is the weapon most effective against a boggart. Now, allow me to demonstrate."

He then stood in front of the wardrobe while we lined up behind him. With a wave of his wand the wardrobe opened and a black mass appeared. The mass then shifted and shrank to form a glowing white orb that floated in the air. Lupin pointed his wand at it.

"_Riddikulus!" _he cried. The orb then turned shot across the room like it was a balloon that someone let go of before they finished blowing it up. The students laughed as it crashed back into the wardrobe.

"Now," he said as he let the first student approach. "Do as I did, think of something funny."

One by one the students faced the boggart. The fears ranged from snakes to people to morbid things like corpses; there was even someone afraid of clowns. As I was getting nearer the front I thought about my fear. I am incapable of feeling fear, so I couldn't say for sure what would happen, although I had an inkling as to what could. My theory proved true as I appeared at the front of the line. I noticed Lupin's expectant look as he opened the wardrobe. I was not surprised to see the familiar figure of the Organization's leader, Xemnas, step out from the wardrobe. The doppelganger slowly strode toward me. I raised my wand and let said the spell. The images from my mind applied themselves to the boggart and the people present started hysterically laughing.

The new Xemnas no longer had his silver hair, but bright pink, and his black coat was now pink with red hearts covering it. His face was now powdered white, instead of the dark golden color and his lips were covered in a shade of bright red lipstick. Satisfied with my work I turned and let the next student have at it. The rest of the class went incredibly smoothly and Lupin gave everyone points to their respective houses for taking on the boggart.

The monotony of school life continued into October. A notice was put up regarding the first Hogsmeade visit on Halloween. Harry had tried to get Professor McGonagall to let him go, but she refused him. The day of the trip came and Harry resigned himself to the fact that he was the only one of the three unable to go.

"Don't worry Harry," Ron said with a hand on his shoulder. "We will make sure to bring you some sweets."

"Are you sure you're not coming Gnocx?" Hermione asks me.

"No… I unfortunately don't have any money and I wanted to take a look at the library anyway, so it's no big loss." I replied dismissively.

"We'll get you something too," Ron called as they left with the crowd.

I told Harry I'd meet him at the feast before I made a beeline for the stairs. There have been a couple of odd things that have been nagging at me since the start of term. I arrived on the third floor and proceeded to head to the library. My reasons for going there had to do with Hermione and Ron's rat, Scabbers. I noticed that Hermione would disappear at times only to reappear hours later looking worse for wear. That and her schedule still had me vexed. I want to find out how she could be in three places at once, because that is obviously what has been happening. Now Scabbers is a conundrum. The rodent continues to look worse every day and Crookshanks appears to have made it its life's mission to kill the rat. That wouldn't bother me so much if it hadn't been for the fact that I could sense a darkness coming from him. I couldn't discern more because I can never get close to him without him scurrying away, or even going as far as to try and bite me. Ron just thinks it is because I intimidate him, and I am inclined to at least partially agree.

Fortunately for me, I ran into Professor Dumbledore of all people. Deciding to forgo the effort of research I just decided to ask the source.

"Ah, good morning," he greeted as he sees me. "Is there something you need?"

"How does Hermione Granger make it to three classes at the same time?" I asked bluntly.

Dumbledore was unfazed by my question.

"I have been expecting you to ask me that," he said. "Miss Granger has been assigned a time turner."

"I suppose the name explains itself," I said in response.

"Indeed," he confirmed. "She is able to turn back the clock in order to attend all of her classes, but she needs to make sure she's not seen, so I trust that you won't breathe a word to anyone."

"Noted," I said. "I have one other concern, Ron's rat, Scabbers."

I explain my thoughts and what has happened regarding Scabbers while the headmaster just listened. When I was finished he only had one thing to say.

"I don't know what to think about that, although I have a theory. I am not confident in anything, but I am sure that the matter will resolve itself when Sirius Black decides to make his move," the old man stated.

"I have a feeling that the time will soon come when Black loses his patience and decides to act," I said.

We converse for a little bit before he dismisses himself for a business matter. I decide to head to the common room and get caught up on the work that I have been neglecting in favor of indulging my curiosity.

It would soon turn out that my assumptions on Black growing bold would prove true.

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**Another Chapter down. I have started on Volume Two but I'm suffering from a bit of writer's block. Please review... Or I guess it's comment now... Just how many changes are the going to make? Anyway, I digress... See you next week.**


	6. Chapter 5

**Hey guys! Here is chapter 5. In total, including the prologue, there are 11 chapters, so we just passed the halfway mark. I am working on Volume 2 and slowly getting over writer's block. (And laziness). I have the first 6 volumes set world wise and I will tell you that Volume 2 will take place in the world of Yu Yu Hakusho, one of my al time favorite anime.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Kingdom Hearts**

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Chapter 5

It was late afternoon before I had gotten caught up on all my work. Satisfied with that, I put my things in my bag and look up to see that Harry, who I had noticed slipped in a while ago, was still doing his own work. I was going to lend him a hand, but Hermione and Ron, along with the other Gryffindor's who went on the Hogsmeade trip came in the room. The two came over to where we were and dropped a sack full of sweets on the table.

"There you go, Harry," Ron said.

Harry then took a packet of Black Pepper Imps while Ron handed me a random pack of something from the stack.

"How was it? Where did you go?" Harry asked them.

We were then regaled with their trips to shops like Honeydukes and Zonko's Joke Shop. Apparently there is a post office that had 200 owls lined up on the shelves and you could pick one to use depending on how fast you wanted your letter delivered. Eventually, Hermione saw that Harry was growing tired of hearing about their good time, so she finally changed the subject.

"Did you two get any work done?" she prodded.

"No, had tea with Lupin," Harry replied.

"I am fortunate enough to say I am caught up with every one of my classes," I said.

Harry then told us how he had tea in Lupin's office and they were talking about the dementors until they were interrupted by Snape. Apparently Snape had brought Lupin some sort of medicinal potion.

"And he drank it?" Ron asked. "Is he mad?"

"I don't think Snape would poison Lupin with Harry there, Ronald," Hermione told him.

"I highly doubt Snape would poison him at all," I said, resulting in two looks that promised an argument. "Snape is not the nicest guy, but he is not the type to just commit murder out of some petty jealousy."

"Gnocx is right," Hermione told the indignant boys. "Anyway we should get down to the Great Hall for dinner."

We then headed out of the common room and to the entrance hall. The place was decorated with floating pumpkins that were filled with candles. We took our seats and started eating. Despite the fact that the golden trio had been stuffed on sweets, they had helped themselves to multiple helpings of everything. Halfway through the three were laughing at something that Neville and Seamus said and I was just watching. All of a sudden I got the now familiar feeling of darkness inside the castle. I put down my cutlery and looked to the staff table at Dumbledore, who gave me an approving nod.

"Sorry guys," I said as I stood. "I'll be right back."

"Where are you going?" Neville asked.

"Bathroom," I replied as I walked away.

Once I was out of the hall I started running up the stairs. I donned my coat with my hood up as I followed my senses up through the floors of the castle. It led me to the seventh floor where I was met with a group of shadow heartless with some that looked like soldiers with them. They were surrounding a man who looked like he was rabid. He had long, scraggy, black hair and clothes that were tattered and had numerous holes. Behind him was the portrait of the fat lady. The portrait had been slashed and the fat lady was gone. The dagger in the man's hand told me all I needed to know.

I manifested my black bladed rapier and leapt. One of the soldiers had jumped in the air and started spiraling toward the man. Before it could reach its target I had slashed it through, causing it to vanish in a cloud of darkness. I landed beside the man and spun, cleaving through three shadow heartless. The man looked at me as I straightened up before he used the opening I created to start heading down the hallway in order to escape. I jumped over the heartless and started to follow. He beat me to the stairs, but his speed slowed as he descended them. I ran and leapt far and high enough to land on the landing in front of the set of stairs he was on. He saw what I did and started to back up.

"Who are you?" he demanded. "You won't get in my way!"

I ignored his words as I started up the stairs toward him. I was positive that this man was Sirius Black, so I was going to catch him for Dumbledore. I had gotten closer, but he took me by surprise. He lunged for me and I was prepared to knock him down, but then he shifted shape and turned into what looked like a mangy dog. I didn't recover from the shock in time, so he crashed into me. I fell and my back hit the landing I was just on. The animal then used the momentum of my fall to propel itself farther down the staircases. I was going to give chase but then I noticed the remaining heartless at the top of the stairs. Figuring that he couldn't leave the castle, I turned to the four soldier heartless and three shadows. One of the shadows jumped and started spinning down toward me with its leg sticking out. In response, I jumped onto the railing of the staircase and ran up it. I slashed the heartless as it span by. Once I reached the top I swung my blade that I infused with a thunder spell, and a bolt of lightning streaked and vanquished the three shadows. Then before the last three soldiers could react, I moved myself in between them and held my weapon above my head.

"Wind!" I said.

The soldiers were picked up by the air current my spell created, and I jumped and spun 360 degrees; dispatching the enemies in one stroke. I landed on the ground and dismissed my weapon. I started to descend the stairs only to hear the students leaving the Great Hall. I jumped over the staircase and fell down the sets of stairs until I grabbed onto the rail of the second floor stairs. I pulled myself up, but before I could get onto the floor I heard voices.

"Did you see that?" someone asked.

"Who was that?" someone else added.

Apparently I was spotted, so I quickly headed onto the second floor and into the bathroom. Luckily there was no one there, so I took the opportunity to get rid of my coat and check myself in the mirror for damage. Seeing none I headed out and followed the crowd of students up the staircase to where they would inevitably see the ruined portrait. I made my way up to the seventh floor corridor where it was crowded with students. I maneuvered through the students until I found my way to the golden trio.

"What's going on?" I asked, feigning ignorance.

"No idea," Ron replied when they noticed I was there, "that must have been some bathroom break. You were gone for a long time."

"That's what happens when I make the mistake of engorging myself on sweets before dinner. My stomach rebels against me," I smartly reply, however Ron had already moved on.

"Why isn't anyone going in?" he asked no one in particular.

"Let me through please," a voice that I recognized belonged to Percy said as he bustled through the crowd. "What's the hold up here? You can't all have forgotten the password-Excuse me, I'm Head Boy-"

Suddenly everything got silent and then all anybody heard was Percy telling somebody to get Professor Dumbledore.

"What's happening?" Ginny, who just showed up, asked.

A moment later the headmaster appeared, as he swept toward the portrait, the Gryffindor's squeezed together to give him room and the trio moved closer to see what the problem was.

"Oh my-" Hermione breathed as she grabbed Harry's arm.

Dumbledore inspected the ruined portrait, and solemnly turned toward Professor's Snape, Lupin, and McGonagall, who had followed him.

"We have to find her," the old man said. "Professor McGonagall, please go find Mr. Filch and have him search every painting in the castle for the Fat Lady."

"You'll be lucky!" a voice cackled.

Peeves the Poltergeist was bobbing above the crowd with an ecstatic look on his face.

"What do you mean, Peeves?" asked Dumbledore calmly. The poltergeist's grin faltered as he obviously knew to never mess with the headmaster.

"Ashamed, she is, Professorhead, sir. Doesn't want to be seen. She's a mess. Saw her running through the landscape on the fourth floor crying up a storm." Peeves explained.

"Did she say who did it?" Dumbledore requested.

"Of course, your headship," Peeves replied as he flipped upside down. "He got very angry when she wouldn't let him in. Nasty Temper he's got, that Sirius Black."

At this the students all gasped and started murmuring amongst themselves.

"Peeves isn't finished," Peeves stated while glaring at everyone as he rotates in the air.

"Continue, please, Peeves," Dumbledore coaxes.

"Good," Peeves replied. "The Fat Lady was very happy when those black creatures came out of the ground and tried to attack the ruffian. Unfortunately it would appear as though a hooded fellow with a sword came and saved him. Then they both took off. Then they got into it at the stairs over there and Black got away. I'll bet that fall will leave Mr. Hoodie pretty sore in the morning."

I look at Peeves with a sudden desire to send the spirit to whatever afterlife exists in this world. The students start speaking up once again and I hear people say they spotted me hanging on the stair railing on their way up. This being the kind of thing I didn't want happening, now everyone will be on high alert, making my job here more difficult. I look over to Dumbledore and he and the other professors exchange glances or make discrete looks in my direction.

The Gryffindors were then sent to the Great Hall and we were soon joined by the Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs, and Slytherins.

"The teachers and I need to conduct a thorough search of the castle," Dumbledore explained. "I'm afraid that, for your own safety, you will have to spend the night here. I want the prefects to stand guard over the entrances to the hall and I am leaving the Head Boy and Head Girl in charge. Any disturbances should be reported to me immediately." He gestured to Percy. "Send word via the ghosts."

Then, with a wave of his wand the house tables flew to the end of the room and stood against the wall. Then, with another wave, hundreds of purple sleeping bags appeared on the ground.

"Sleep well," he said before exiting the Great Hall, closing the door behind him.

The populace started buzzing as the Gryffindors informed the rest of the school what happened.

"Everyone into their sleeping bags!" Percy ordered. "Come on, now, no more talking! Lights out in ten minutes."

"Come on," Ron said as the three grabbed any random sleeping bag for themselves and proceeded to set up in a corner. Naturally I followed and as soon as we were set the talking began.

"Do you think Sirius Black is still in the castle?" Hermione whispered anxiously.

"Dumbledore obviously thinks so," Ron replied.

"It's lucky he picked tonight, you know," Hermione said as we all climbed into our sleeping bags. I was lying on my stomach and the others were propped on their elbows to talk. "The one night we weren't in the tower."

"He probably lost track of time," Ron stated, "being on the run, he probably forgot didn't know it was Halloween."

"I am more concerned with how he got into the castle. He can't apparate in here and the dementors would see through a disguise," I said.

Hermione looked at me.

"Thank God somebody other than me has read _Hogwarts, A History_," she said, turning to glare at the students nearby who were suggesting apparition and flying.

"Actually I didn't," I deadpanned, "I just knew."

"Oh… Well at least someone does," she corrected herself.

"The lights are going off," Percy yelled. "I want everyone in their sleeping bags, and no more talking."

The candles all went out at the same time and the room was plunged in darkness. The only lights came from the ghosts and the ceiling. Every now and then a teacher would come and inspect the students. Eventually Dumbledore came in and walked over to Percy.

"Did you find him, Professor?" Percy asked.

"No," he replied. "All well here?"

"Everything is under control, sir," stated Percy.

"Good. There is no need to move them all back now. I found a temporary guardian for the portrait hole. They can be moved back in tomorrow," the old man explained.

"The Fat Lady, sir?" Percy asked.

"She is hiding on the second floor. Apparently she wouldn't let Sirius Black in without the password and he attacked the portrait. She is very distressed. Once she calms down, I will have Mr. Filch restore her," Dumbledore replied.

I heard footsteps approaching. They belonged to Snape.

"Headmaster, the whole castle has been searched. There is no sign of Black anywhere," Snape reported.

"That is not surprising, I did not expect him to linger," Dumbledore said in reply.

"Do you have any idea as of how he got inside?" Snape asked.

"I have theories, but each is as unlikely as the last."

I could see that Harry was moving himself so he could hear the conversation better. Dumbledore's back was to him, so he was lucky enough to not be noticed.

"You remember the conversation we had at the start of term, Headmaster?" Snape phished.

"I do," said headmaster replied.

"It seems-almost impossible-that Black could have entered the school without inside help. I did express my concerns when you appointed-"

"I do not believe a single person inside this castle would have helped Black enter it. As a matter of fact you would do well to remember that I have _him_ here to help keep him and the Heartless out," Dumbledore interrupted in a tone that signaled the topic has ended. "I must go and tell the dementors that our search is complete."

"Didn't they want to help, sir?" Percy asked.

"Oh yes, however no dementor will set foot beyond the threshold of this castle while I am headmaster," Dumbledore replied coldly as he left the hall, Snape and Percy staring after him.

I closed my eyes and heard Ron whispering to Harry before I fell asleep.

The whole school was talking about nothing but Sirius Black for the next few days. Immediately following the incident with the portrait of the Fat Lady, I was called to Dumbledore's office where I had to relay what had happened. I then told Dumbledore that he had been careless when he was talking with Snape in the Great Hall that night.

"You did notice that he picked the one night no one would be in the dormitories?" I asked him.

"What are you suggesting?" he asked me.

"The same thing you are, I'm sure. There is more to this whole situation than I can see on the surface. Were you aware he could transform into a dog?" I asked.

"Alas, I was. Sirius Black is an unregistered animagus, someone who can change into an animal," he said with a sigh.

"Like Professor McGonagall," I stated as I remembered her transformation in class.

"Correct," he confirmed.

"My job just got harder," I said. "I was spotted by a few students when I was trying to get into the second floor bathrooms. Peeves didn't make it better either. Now they are wondering what the black creatures are and who I am. It's getting dangerous."

"At this point no one knows for sure the 'hooded man' exists," he told me. "Until that point you are reasonably safe."

"That was true until you let slip that you have someone here to help with the Heartless and Black. I guarantee you Hermione is in the library now researching," I told him.

"She won't find anything," he assured me. "You know as well as I that the heartless are hardly known creatures."

"I am aware, although she will not give up," I reminded him.

With that I took my leave.

The quidditch match between Hufflepuff and Gryffindor was fast approaching. Harry had been annoyed with the fact that teachers had taken a habit of following him wherever he went. Not only that, but whenever he went to quidditch practice, Madame Hooch would be there to observe.

A few days before the match, I had Defense Against the Dark Arts class. To say I was surprised when I entered the room only to see Snape there as a substitute would be accurate. I took my seat and after everyone arrived he started class. He lectured about how far behind we were and not so subtly insinuated that Lupin is a poor teacher, earning the ire of most of the class. The most interesting thing when he made us turn our books to a page on werewolves. After lecturing on them he assigned us an essay on how to recognize them. When he dismissed the class I made sure that I was the last to leave.

"You are painfully obvious," I told him as I left the room. He only stared.

That class was obviously a tactic used by Snape to have the students recognize that Lupin is actually a werewolf. In hindsight it makes sense. The boggart turned into that orb, which was actually the moon, there is a full moon tonight, and it would explain the potion Harry saw, the wolfsbane potion. I only hoped that no one else would be able to figure it out, as I am aware of how some wizards treat "half-breeds."

The day of the match arrived and it had an interesting start. I walked out of my dorm and down the stairs to see Harry pushing Crookshanks away, telling him to leave Scabbers alone.

"Crookshanks still after Scabbers?" I asked as I walk by him.

"I'm beginning to think Ron is right," he told me. "That cat seems to have it in for Scabbers."

"Ready for the match?" I ask, playing the good friend.

"Yeah," he replied, "but this storm may complicate things."

"Good luck anyway," I told him as we left the portrait hole.

We made it to the Great Hall and had a quick breakfast before he headed out into the storm with the rest of his team. I was just about to head out myself when I saw Professor Lupin walking in the entrance hall toward the exit. I head out into the hall and, making sure no one is there, vanish and appear beside him in a flash, making him jump.

"Why would you do that?" he exclaimed in a whisper looking around.

"I am not that reckless," I told him. "There is no one here. I just wanted to tell you that the next time you feel ill, you need to make sure Snape is not the substitute."

Lupin stopped walking and I turned to see the nervous look on his face.

"What did he do?" he asked me.

"Werewolves, and before you ask. Yes I figured it out and I don't know if I am the only one. I am assuming so because no one has reported it yet," I told him. "Just thought I'd give you a warning as a favor for not blowing the whistle to anyone about me."

I took off out the door before he could say anything. Trekking to the stadium through the rain made me wish I could put on my hood; however I make it to the stadium in one piece.

As the match commenced, the Gryffindor team managed to put themselves 50 points ahead. Hermione left when the captain called a time out. I saw her run into the tent they had set up before she came back out and headed back to the stands where Ron, Neville, and I were standing. Hermione told us she used a spell on Harry's glasses in order to make it so he could see a little bit better. We turned our attention back to the match just in time to see Harry rocketing into the air. It was too hard to see whether or not he was after the snitch.

He was rising when he suddenly started to lose focus in where he was going. I could tell that something in the stands on the other side of the stadium had his attention, and it must have been big if he lost concentration in a quidditch match. I asked Neville for his binoculars and I looked through them. I didn't see anything on the other side until I looked at the top row in one of the sets of stands. In the top, by itself, was the same big black dog that sent me down a flight of stairs. Sirius Black was watching the match.

I didn't have a chance to make a move because of a scream from Hermione. I saw her point and I followed her gaze, only to have my eyes widen as I see Harry falling out of the sky. I almost blow it and use a spell to stop him, but I saw his movement slow and heard Dumbledore's thundering voice shout, _Arresto momentum._ Harry's fall was slowed to the point that when he hit the ground it didn't affect him. The silence was deafening as Madame Hooch and the teams touched down and went to inspect Harry. I couldn't help but see that the Hufflepuff seeker, Cedric Diggory, had caught the snitch. I turned my attention upward as a familiar cold encompassed me and saw what had to be a dozen or more dementors descending into the stadium. They didn't make it very far because as soon as they came they were banished by spells fired from the teachers. Professor McGonagall used the microphone the commentator uses to tell everyone to head back to the castle and wait in our dormitories.

We waited for what seemed like hours before Professor McGonagall came sweeping into the common room. She told us that Harry would make a full recovery and asked that we try to help find his broomstick outside. It didn't take long due to a _point me_ spell from Hermione. Unfortunately for Harry, the broom had been caught by the whomping willow and was now in shambles. Hermione summoned the pieces and we rolled them up in a blanket. Bundle in hand; we walked back to the castle. Professor McGonagall was waiting for us at the entrance, so when we arrived she dismissed everyone but Ron, Hermione, myself, and the team. She told us we could wait with him until he woke up. The others went ahead and I waited for them to get out of earshot.

"Sirius Black was at the match," I told her.

"Are you absolutely certain?" she asked me with a panicked look.

"Definitely, he was in his animagus form watching the match. It was pretty bold of him to do, but I don't understand what he thought he would accomplish by doing that," I explained.

"Very well," she mumbled. "I will tell Professor Dumbledore. Now you go wait with your friends."

"Yes, Professor," I said before walking toward the stairs.

I reached the hospital wing in moments. I opened the door and walked in to see the devastated look on Harry's face when he discovered that his prized broomstick was irreparable.

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**There it is. I'm sorry if this may be boring to some of you, but I will let you in on something. I have plans... and the only reason that I chose year 3 of Harry Potter as the first world is because I plan on having Gnocx brought back during book 5 and I felt it would be easier if the golden trio already knew who he was. Thank you for reading and please review/comment. See you next friday!**


	7. Chapter 6

**Hey guys, it's that time of the week again. Here is chapter six for you. Just four more left after this then it's onto Volume Two. Speaking of, progress on Volume 2 is tremendous. I have been putting out a chapter a day for the last four days. I plan on finishing chapter 5 today and at least starting chapter 6, so it's coming along. A note though. With me you guys are used to chapters being about 4000 words on average. Well I shortened it for volume 2 so I feel like I don't have so much work. Volume 2 has about an average of 2500 words per chapter so far. And I've switched to third person POV for Volume 2. I think I like it better, so starting Volume 2 I will be writing in third person. Well onto the chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or Harry Potter. I tried to request ownership, but only got some nasty phone calls in return. I only own my OC.**

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Chapter 6

The team and Harry wallowed in their depression from losing the match for weeks. Slowly, things began to calm back down. People's spirits were lifted when Lupin came back to teaching once his "illness" passed. Harry had held onto the remains of his broom for the longest time. He knew it was silly, but he told us that part of him felt like he lost a best friend.

It wasn't until the end of November that Harry completely came out of his slump. Hufflepuff was soundly beaten by Ravenclaw, so the Gryffindor team was not out of the running for the cup. Harry complained to us that Wood was back on his training tirade, desperately wanting to win the cup. Harry also told us that Lupin was going to teach him how to fight of the dementors after the holidays.

There had been more heartless attacks happening lately. My guess is because the dementors are getting hungry and they are unwittingly calling more and more heartless. I was nearly caught by at least one student more than once, and it is made worse with the fact that the Weasley twins were among the few who did see me on Halloween. Couple that with the fact that Hermione was indeed scavenging through the library for any mention of the Heartless. However, just as Dumbledore predicted, she found nothing.

"There has got to be some mention somewhere!" Hermione exclaimed, frustrated, from where we were sitting in the common room. "Have you three ever heard of the Heartless before Halloween?"

"If you don't, what makes you think we would?" Ron asked as he and Harry tried to do their Divination homework.

Hermione then looks over at me; however my face is buried in my History essay, as I am pretending to not listen to her.

"Gnocx!" she yelled.

"What is it?" I calmly asked as I moved my head up to look at her.

"Do you know anything about the Heartless or not?" She huffed.

"Of course not," I stated. I then put away my essay after putting the final touches in it.

"I'll be right back," I told them as I walk up the stairs to my dormitory to put my bag away.

Classes were done for today and we were doing homework until it was time to go to the Great Hall. I put my bag in my trunk and headed back down the stairs. Before I reached the bottom I heard Ron's voice.

"You're being paranoid Hermione," he said.

"No, I'm not," she replied. "You have to admit there is something Gnocx is hiding."

"What makes you think that?" Harry asks, sounding mildly curious.

"Every time the Heartless are brought up he either changes the subject or doesn't contribute to the conversation," Hermione said.

"Maybe that is because he's tired of you bringing it up all the time," Ron reasoned.

"But it's not just that," Hermione insisted. "I have felt that there is something off about him since we've met. Don't you notice how whenever there are heartless around he is not? What about that first night we went to see Hagrid; he lied and said he went to Lupin's office, but when we heard the ruckus in the second floor, which, by the way, I will bet you a sickle was a Heartless attacking, we saw Lupin coming with the other Professors from the first floor, Not the third where his office is. Also when he came back his face was cut. And Halloween, he went to bed lying on his stomach."

"Oh, is that all?" Ron asked with a tone of sarcasm. "You're reaching."

"Actually Ron, I have noticed as well," Harry said, this conversation has been a long time coming I just hoped that it wouldn't be soon. "There are also smaller things. He never mentions his parents, he never gets letters from home, and he is incredibly distant from everyone. He talks to us, but it's almost as if it is because he is forcing himself to."

For some reason that last statement stuck a cord in me; however I quickly ignored it in favor of listening to the rest.

"So he is a bit of a weirdo, doesn't mean he's keeping things from us, we are his friends," Ron reasoned.

"That is another thing, you two trusted him almost immediately. He came out of nowhere, for all we know he could be working with Sirius Black and trying to help him kill you, Harry," Hermione pleaded.

I had to give it to the girl. She thought this through, and she makes a point. I need to reevaluate my strategy in dealing with them.

"That sounds a little far-fetched Hermione," Harry said. "Although you may be right when you say we trusted him with too much."

"Remember what I just said about the first night," Hermione said. "I think Gnocx might be the hooded man who Fred and George saw Halloween. According to Peeves and the Fat Lady, the hooded man fought the Heartless and Sirius Black. Black managed to knock him down the stairs and onto his back pretty roughly. As I said, Gnocx slept on his stomach."

"Hermione… Gnocx always sleeps that way," Harry said, "I've seen him when I go to bed after he does."

While I applaud Hermione in her deductive reasoning, the reason I slept on my back was as Harry said. Peeves was wrong, the fall didn't hurt me; just knocked the wind out of me.

"Fine," she conceded, "but how do you explain the cut on his face the first night? I doubt it was because Peeves was lucky enough to hit him with something. And if he was running his face wouldn't have been a target, his back would."

"I don't think I believe that Gnocx is the hooded guy, Hermione," Harry said. "Why would he keep it a secret?"

"I'll be honest I don't know, but let's just be careful around him," Hermione whispered as she saw me come down the rest of the stairs. We then all headed off to dinner.

The second Hogsmeade visit of the year came on the weekend before the end of term for the holidays. Harry once again became depressed when he resigned himself to the fact that he was the only third year not going. We saw Ron and Hermione off, then we headed back to Gryffindor tower, but before we could leave the entrance hall we heard a voice.

"Psst-You guys!" it said.

We turned to see Fred and George gesturing to us from a supply closet. We walked over and they pulled us in.

"What are you guys doing?" Harry exclaimed before the twins out a hand over his mouth.

"We came to give you a bit of festive cheer," Fred told us, handing Harry a piece of parchment.

"It's an early Christmas present from us to you," George said, and then he looked at me. "We thought you would enjoy the surprise, so here you are."

"Joy," I said dryly.

"What is this rubbish supposed to be?" Harry asked.

"That, Harry is the secret to our success," George said as he patted the parchment like it was his child.

"We've decided that you need it more than we do," Fred said. "Besides we have it memorized. We don't need it anymore."

"And just what am I supposed to do with a piece of parchment?" he asked them.

"A piece of..." Fred said looking scandalized. "George, explain."

"Well, Harry," George began, "when we were in our first year, young and innocent… well more innocent than we are now, we ran into trouble with Filch."

"We set off a Dungbomb in the corridor and it upset him for some reason-"

"So he hauled us off to his office and started to threaten us with the usual-"

"-detention-"

"-disembowelment-"

"Then we noticed a drawer in one of his cabinets labeled _Confiscated and Highly Dangerous."_

"Don't tell me," Harry said while starting to grin.

"Yep," Fred confirmed. "George started a diversion by setting off a Dungbomb; I whipped the drawer open, and grabbed this."

"What is it?" I asked, breaking my silence.

The twins had then taken out their wands, tapped the parchment, and uttered "_I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."_ And then lines of ink began to form on the page. The lines spread and extended to cover the whole piece of parchment. Then, at the end of it, a message appeared at the top of it.

_Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs_

_Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers_

_are proud to present_

_**The Marauder's Map**_

I could tell that the parchment had revealed what appeared to be a map, and as Harry had inspected it I could see that it was a map of the school. I knew that the twins had had a front row seat at Harry's despair caused by not being able to go to Hogsmeade, but I was not sure why giving him this map would help him. My answer came when Fred took his finger and outlined a passage on the map; a passage that looked like it led out of the castle and right into—

"Right into Hogsmeade," Fred told him. "There are seven secret passages leading to Hogsmeade. Filch knows about four of them." He then pointed them out.

"But we're sure we're the only ones who know about these ones," George continued as he started pointing, "Don't bother with the one on the fourth floor behind the mirror; it caved in last year. We reckon that no one has ever used this one either," he said pointing at the map again. "The Whomping Willow was planted over the entrance, but this one on the third floor leads to the cellar of Honeydukes. You should take this one. It is on the third floor, through the one eyed old crone's hump." He then moved back and sighed dramatically. "Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs. We owe them so much."

"Noble men, working tirelessly to help a new generation of lawbreakers," Fred said solemnly.

"Don't forget to wipe the map when you're done-" George warned,

"- or else anyone can read it," Fred finished. "Just tap it again and say, 'Mischief managed!' And it'll go blank."

"Now then, young Harry," George said. "See you in Hogsmeade."

The twins then shoved us out of the closet and followed us. They proceeded to follow the now distant crowd outside the school. Harry was still admiring the gift he just received.

"Are you going to go?" I inquired.

"Of course I am," he gushed. "You want to come too."

"No," I replied. "I stayed because I don't have money, but don't worry, I won't rat you out. I want to go walk around the grounds. I want to see everything blanketed in snow; makes for a nice view."

"See you then," he said immediately.

I wonder if he even knew what I told him.

Harry then walked to the staircase while shoving the map in his pocket. I turned and headed outside. Truth be told, I had no interest in the views. While the map wasn't for me, it did give me an idea. Sirius Black had been getting in the castle. With the information I had just received, I could guess that he had been getting in through one of the secret passages. By process of elimination, the four known by Filch were out, as was the fourth floor passage behind the mirror; due to being blocked as a result of the cave-in. That left the Honeydukes passage and the one under the Whomping Willow. The Honeydukes entrance is unlikely the one used because he would have to sneak through Honeydukes itself. He cannot do that even if he is a dog, which leaves only the Whomping Willow passage.

The Whomping Willow would attack anything that came near it, which gave me the idea that it was planted as a security measure. I believe that the Willow was planted to either seal the entrance, or guard it from any unwanted guests. The only snag I had is that I needed to get close enough to investigate the base of the tree. If there was no way to get to the passage, my theory would go up in smoke. However, if there was one, I would have figured out the most likely way Black had gotten into the castle and, perhaps, where he had been hiding,

I had made my way out of the castle and was on my way to the lake, when, of all times, then I had been overcome with the presence of darkness manifesting back in the castle. Deciding that my theory could wait, I ran back to the castle. As soon as I crossed the threshold I was in my coat. I bounded for the stairs, and in an effort to save time, I went from the bottom to the first floor landing in a flash. I took off from there, as I had yet to pinpoint where the Heartless were. Once I reached the third floor I burst into the corridor. To my distaste, Harry was down the hall, surrounded by three Heartless that essentially looked like even more bloated versions of Malfoy's pets. Knowing that I needed to act quickly, I ran over and jumped in the air. I descended and kicked one of the Large Bodies in the back, sending it forward and into one of its buddies. As soon as I landed I ran forward and grabbed Harry as he turned to see who had kicked his attacker.

"It's you!" he exclaimed.

Wasting no time, I grabbed his arm and thrust him toward the stairs. He turned to look at me and I pointed to the stairs. Seeming to get the message, he ran for them. Much to my chagrin, he refused to completely leave and turned to watch the fight with his wand drawn.

I turned to face the third Large Body. It stared at me for a moment before it began swinging its arms, trying to bat me away. Unfortunately for it, its movements were slow, so I was easily able to back up and call my blades. I then lunged as it was recovering and moved to strike it in the stomach with an x slash; only to have my rapiers, literally, bounce off of it, I was surprised enough that I had lost my grip and the swords clattered to the floor. Before I could react further one of the ones I had knocked down had risen and hit me with its giant fist. The blow sent me careening into the wall face first. I fell down onto the floor. I felt blood starting to flow out of my nose. I lifted myself up and off the floor that now had my blood on it and threw my hand up at the approaching Heartless. I heard Harry yelling at me to get out of the way and he pointed his wand at the Heartless, however before he could say anything the Heartless was stopped by a dome I had formed around me made of hexagonal panels. The panels glowed at the impact and released a shockwave, forcing its own energy against it and sent it flying into the other two.

With all three on the floor I quickly flashed to appear in front of Harry, who gasped.

"Who are you?" he demanded, still holding his wand still up.

I had my back to hm. I held my hand to my nose and took advantage of the blood flowing.

"Put the wand away, and get going," I told him with a voice that was slightly muffled because of my nose. "You don't know any magic that could help."

Before he could answer I held out my hands and my weapons disappeared from the floor, and back into my hands.

"Who the bloody hell are you?" Harry demanded again.

I ignored him and charged forward. I reached the now recovered Heartless and dodged one that charged at me. Having learned my lesson I weaved around the juggernaut and stabbed it in the back. The creature then vanished into smoke as the others charged upon me. I jumped and back flipped over them. I dismissed one of my blades and held the newly emptied hand out to the one on the right. A familiar spell flew toward it and froze it solid. With that one out of the fight, I turned to the final one that had somehow jumped into the air and was now falling toward me as if doing a belly flop into a pool. I did not have a desire to be crushed, so I held out my sword and a small, black shockwave expanded from the white blade. As the shockwave reached the Heartless its movement stopped and it was now suspended in the air, slowly rotating and struggling fruitlessly against my spell. I switched the grip on my blade and threw it as if it were a javelin. The projectile flew up and pierced the Heartless through its tiny head. That Heartless then followed its brother and vanished leaving nothing behind but dark wisps.

With the battle essentially over, I turned to the still frozen heartless and held out both hands.

"Force!" I recited, and then a dark orb appeared and surrounded the lone Heartless.

I heard the shattering of my ice spell and could see the Heartless being crushed under the increased gravity. Seconds after the fatal spell began, it too vanished to nothing.

Battle concluded; I turned to see Harry, still at the stairs, staring at me with wide eyes. I proceeded to then walk toward him and the stairs. As I got closer he pulled out his wand and pointed it at me.

"Take off the hood," he ordered me.

I kept walking as if nothing changed. He began to get visibly frustrated.

"Take off your damn hood!" he barked again.

That time I just vanished. He jumped only to have his back meet my chest. He turned around and before he could back away I grabbed his wrist and squeezed hard enough for him to drop his wand.

"I just told you that you did not know any magic that could help me in that fight, what makes you think you can stand up to me?" I reprimanded as I let go of his wrist and stepped on his wand to make sure he knows he can't get it.

He backed away and started rubbing his wrist.

"Who are you?" he asked for the third time.

"Dumbledore asked me to help with the Heartless. That's all you need to know," I told him as I kicked his wand to him and started heading to the fourth floor.

He picked it up and started to follow me.

"What are the Heartless?' he asked.

I stopped and turned to face him.

"Heartless are dark creatures that should not exist," I explained. "You would do well to run from them should they appear. Tell that to your friend who has been wasting her time in the library. The Heartless are not known by the normal populace and for good reason. You need to go; you were there for a reason. I saw the passage."

I turned to leave but was stopped again by the question I knew was coming.

"I need to know," he began, "are you Gnocx?"

I slowly turned around and saw his expectant gaze. After a moment I turned back around and left giving nothing but a cryptic response.

"What does your heart say?"

With that said I left him standing on the stairs. I know that eventually he did go back to Hogsmeade. I made my way to the Hospital Wing where I dismissed my coat and had Madame Pomfrey fix my nose. After she finished, I cleaned my clothes with a spell and took my leave of her following a lecture from her about being careful while I was fighting.

I left the Hospital Wing and proceeded to make my way back down the stairs to continue where I had left off. Some force in the universe must have had it out for me that day because as I passed the Third floor I was halted by none other than the school's resident bat.

"Yes, Professor Snape," I answered his order to stop. He came out of the third floor where I had just fought.

"I just found blood spread across the corridor on this floor," he told me. "Would you happen to know anything about it?"

"Yes," I replied. "I just saved Harry Potter from a group of Heartless, the blood is mine. I couldn't clean it after the fight because he wouldn't leave me alone, and he would have recognized my wand. He wanted to know who I was and obviously I was able to shake him off."

"Why was Potter attacked in the first place?" he asked me with his normal sneer. "You are supposed to be keeping the Heartless out."

I just looked at him. He was trying to unnerve me, but he didn't know that I was impossible to unnerve.

"I can't stop the Heartless before they appear," I told him, "They literally show up and I can't sense them until they do. If I were you I wouldn't criticize the one person here who can sense them. I understand that you don't trust me, but Dumbledore does and you should trust him. I know that he is someone not to be trifled with."

I turned to make my way down the stairs. He swoops after me and he breaks off at the second floor, but before he left I called him.

"Professor," I called.

He turned to look at me with a curious expression.

"I have come to understand you have been seeking the Defense Against the Dark Arts post," I began, "however, if you want it, going out of your way to expose the one who has it for something he can't control is not the way to get it." With those words I turn and walk away.

"You would do well to not interfere in my affairs," he said. Then he turned and strode further away.

The conversation done, I was finally able to head outside and make it to the willow. Unfortunately I was not able to get close enough to see the base without the tree's limbs taking a swing at me. I was able to counter this by freezing the tree in time, however, due to its size, the effect wouldn't last long, so I ran up to the base and I saw, just as I had predicted, a hole in the side that led into the ground. All I could see were roots, and before I could investigate further, my spell wore off and I was almost hit while I was running away from the tree. I had established that that maybe how Black was getting in, now I just needed to know how he was getting past the tree itself. Thoughts on this flooded my mind as I headed back to the castle.

When the trio came back from Hogsmeade, they were not exactly in the best of spirits, despite it being the end of term. When Harry had come through the common room after sneaking back in through the secret passage he looked as if Voldemort himself paid him a visit. He sat in front of the fire and waited for the other two to come back. He didn't even acknowledge that I was present, which was to be expected, but it was still bothersome because something had obviously rattled him, and it wasn't the Heartless attack.

Soon the other two came back and Harry led them out of the common room to go to dinner. I set the book I had been reading from the library on the stand next to the chair I was in and made to follow. Once I reached the Great Hall, the three were already silently eating and Ron and Hermione kept giving Harry worried glances. I took my seat and nothing changed. They were silent all through dinner and then Harry left before the rest of us. Eventually we all made our way to the common room to see that Harry had gone up to his dormitory.

"What happened to him?" I asked Ron. "He seems like something really rattled him."

Ron looked at me then he and Hermione exchanged a look.

"Don't worry about it," he replied in a dismissive tone. "If he wants you to know he'll tell you."

He and Hermione then walked away and sat next to the fire.

_Well that was unnecessarily hostile, _I thought as I watched them whisper to each other. I looked back up the stairs and resigned myself to going to bed. I grabbed my book I left on the table and went up to my dorm. I slipped myself into the bed and pondered the Willow. For some reason my thoughts kept drifting back to the three. I suppose it was my curiosity, making me wonder what could have turned Harry into and introvert. I thought back to the conversation I heard earlier and sighed.

The separation from me had begun.

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**Don't worry the separation won't last. I needed for them to find out who he is, so I don't have to go through all this when I have him come back. I won't tell you when he will, but only that it will be during book 5. Thank you to the like 3 people who have favorited and the 5 who have alerted. I appreciate it. I'm thinking about doing a story with no OC**'**s to see if people think my writing is any good. Until next time.**


	8. Chapter 7

**Here's the next chapter. I am on Chapter 6 of volume 2, but have been hit with laziness again. I apologize in advance for the beginning of this chapter, but I needed them to figure it out. I hope I can be forgiven, and I promise you there won't be anything this bad again. Now, I have been up all night trying to shock my sleep schedule back to normal. Please review.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except Gnocx.**

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Chapter 7

The next morning I woke to an empty room. This was to be expected seeing as how today is the first day of the holiday break, and most of the school's students have gone home to their families. I quickly got dressed in my clothes that I normally wear under my coat, grabbed the book I had been reading the previous day, and then walked out of the room and towards the common room. Not surprisingly, the only other people in Gryffindor tower were the golden trio. I slowed my descent as I realized that they were talking.

"You really don't look well," Hermione said to Harry as she got close to his face.

"I'm fine," Harry grumbled irritably.

"Listen," she started after exchanging a look with Ron, "I know you are upset at what we heard yesterday, but you must not do anything foolish."

"Like what?" he asked, giving her a minor glare.

"Like going after Sirius Black, that's what," Ron snipped.

"Why would he want to go after Black?" I asked, deciding that that would be the best time to "conveniently" appear and interrupt them.

As expected, Hermione jumped and I saw Harry giving the slightest twitch. Ron was looking like a child who had just been caught with his hand in a cookie jar. I raise an eyebrow when a minute passes and I get no answer. Deciding to lift the obviously increasing tension I sigh and dismiss it.

"You know what," I said, "you wouldn't. Because I know that you know that Black is not worth dying for. Now if you excuse me I will be going to finish this book that I can't put down in a place where my company won't make things awkward."

Ron and Hermione suddenly found the floor the most interesting thing in the room, while Harry's gaze did not break from the roaring fire. I turn and make to walk out of the portrait hole. I even make it as far as stepping out onto the seventh floor corridor until I am stopped.

"I'll show you mine if you show me yours," Harry called.

I turned to see Harry standing a few feet from the entrance looking at me with a conviction in his eyes. Ron and Hermione were behind him looking at him uncertainly. I walk back in after Sir Cadogan started complaining. I walked in and stopped a few feet from them.

"What does that mean?" I asked patiently.

"To be blunt," Harry said, "you are the man in the hood that has been roaming the castle fighting the Heartless."

Ron and Hermione both stared wide eyed at him, obviously not expecting that bold declaration. I just raise an eyebrow at him. I had been expecting them to call me out, so it comes as no surprise that he has.

"Do you realize how ridiculous you sound?" I inquired of him.

"Actually I don't," he replied, visibly getting irritated. "Whenever there are Heartless attacks you disappear, you have lied about where you are going when you leave, and you always try to change the subject when we talk about the Heartless or the bloke in the hood."

"You are proving my point," I told him calmly. "Everything you just mentioned is not concrete. It is luck that I am not there, I have not lied about where I have been and you have no way to prove I was, and I change the subject because you three get obsessed and obsession is never good."

"When I was saved by the hooded man yesterday, I asked if it was you. I wasn't told that it wasn't you," he said.

"Again, not concrete," I rebuked. "He didn't say it wasn't me, but obviously he is supposed to be secretive. Did you consider that maybe he made you think it was me to get you to quit looking?"

All three of them exchanged a look, but then Hermione stepped forward.

"But we know for sure it is Gnocx," she said timidly.

"How would you?" I asked.

In response, Harry pulls out a familiar piece of parchment. Realizing what I left as a loose end my eyes widened.

"When you left me on the staircase yesterday, I pulled out the map. I looked before you got to the fourth floor and the map had you labeled as the hooded man," he explained.

I let the reality of my careless mistake to settle before I walked over to the sofa. As I was walking I spoke.

"I was too focused on trying to get my face fixed and keeping my alibi of going out to view the grounds that I completely overlooked the map," I said as I let my coat manifest itself.

As it appeared Hermione gasped and the other two were startled. I sat down on the couch and pulled my hood down.

"Congratulations," I told them. "You caught me."

"Why wouldn't you tell us?" Ron asked.

"Why does the Wizarding world keep secret from the Muggles?" I asked in reply.

"I don't understand," Harry said as the three took a seat.

"Remember what I told you yesterday when you asked me what the Heartless were?" At his nod I continued. "There are rules, rules against people knowing about me or the Heartless. There are very few who do. Dumbledore is one of them."

"Wait a moment," Hermione said. "Why can't people know about the Heartless?"

I sigh and run my hand through my hair. After a moment of consideration I decide to disclose a basic idea.

"First off let me tell you that I am from another world," I told them.

At my confession Ron almost fell on the floor, Harry was wide eyed and Hermione looked quizzical.

"Impossible," Hermione said. "Other worlds? That's preposterous."

Completely expecting that, I looked over at her.

"Would I be right in saying that you felt the same about magic before you got your letter?" I questioned.

Hermione was at a loss for words. Harry and Ron were just looking at me with a renewed interest.

"I only told you that so I can explain that people shouldn't know about other worlds, it could lead to the natural order of things being messed with," I explained.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked.

"Imagine what could happen if someone like Voldemort could do if he knew about the existence of other worlds." Ron and Hermione flinched as I said his name, while Harry's face dawned with realization. "You see what I mean? Now I implore you to not say a word to anyone and to understand why I can't tell you everything. The only thing I can tell you are that the Heartless are bad news and you need to stay away from them. The same applies to anyone other than me in a black coat like this one; even after I am gone."

"What do you mean?" they asked simultaneously before looking at each other.

I stuck my hand in a pocket and pull out the star shard.

"This is called a star shard," I said as I set it on the table in between us. "It is one of the few means to travel the worlds. It is completely random and can activate anytime to take me off this world. When it brought me here it literally dropped me in the Black Lake."

"So that's why Hagrid was weird around you the first night," Hermione said with recognition. "But why are you staying here. And who are the people who dress like you that we need to avoid."

"Basically there is a group called Organization XIII. They are not nice people, and I am essentially running from them. As for why I am here, Dumbledore offered me sanctuary until the time came for me to leave and in exchange I keep the Heartless at bay and keep Sirius Black away from you if he happens to show up here," I told them.

I deliberately left out my apprehensions on the whole situation because I don't want to make other people question what I, myself am not even sure about.

"I see," Harry said.

"Alright," I declared as I dismissed my coat. "Now it's your turn guys."

Some of the apprehensions they had toward me had thankfully evaporated. They proceeded to tell me that while they were in Hogsmeade yesterday, they heard a group of teachers and Madame Rosmerta talking about the night Harry's parents was killed. Apparently Sirius Black had been best friends with James Potter. They were so close that he and Harry's mother, Lily, made Sirius their secret-keeper. Sirius then turned in their location to Voldemort, who then had chosen to go to their house and murder James, and Lily, and attempt to kill Harry. Obviously we all know how that turned out. Also Black was confronted again by an old friend of his and James, Peter Pettigrew. Pettigrew had tried to duel him but was blown away, along with thirteen muggles with a single curse. The only thing left of him was a finger. I sat there while I was told all of this and when they finished I addressed them.

"So, you two are afraid that Harry will want to go after Black in order to obtain retribution for his parents," I elaborated. "I think they are right; you need to stay put."

"How would you all feel if you were forced to hear your mother's screams while she was trying to protect you and hear the sounds of her dying? Then you find out that one of her close friends was the one that led her killer to her. What would you do?"

"Are you saying you want to kill him?" Ron asked.

"Don't be silly," Hermione said nervously. "You don't want to kill anyone… Do you?"

Harry said nothing. He looked away and got a distant look in his eyes.

"Malfoy knows," he said. Then he turned to the other two. "Remember what he said to me in potions? 'If it was me, I'd hunt him down myself… I'd want revenge.'"

"So, you'll take Malfoy's advice and not ours?" Ron said furiously. "He just wants you to go get yourself killed so he won't have to play you in quidditch."

I looked at Ron with a deadpan expression.

"Yes," I said to him. "It is all about quidditch and not about his family worshipping Voldemort."

"Will you stop saying his name?" Ron yelled.

Hermione ignored him and tried to reason with Harry.

"Harry," she started, "if you do this, you will be playing right into Black's hands. Your mum and dad wouldn't want that for you. They wouldn't want you to go looking for Black!"

"I'll never know what they wanted!" Harry retaliated. "That's because, thanks to Black, I've never spoken to them."

There was a silence that followed his outburst. When no one decided to speak again after a minute, Ron decided to change the subject.

"Look, it's the holidays," Ron submitted. "Why don't we all go see Hagrid?"

"We can't," Hermione protested. "Harry isn't allowed to leave the castle."

Harry, before Hermione had even begun to speak, stood up.

"Yeah," he replied to Ron. "We should go and see how he is doing. That and I can ask him why he never told me about my parents and Sirius Black."

Realizing his mistake, Ron tried to rectify it by offering to play chess or Gobstones, whatever that was.

"No," Harry insisted, "let's go visit Hagrid."

Apparently the matter was settled as they went up to the dormitories to grab their cloaks. I was in my coat with my hood down when they came back, and we headed out the portrait hole and down to the entrance hall. We made our way slowly across the grounds and toward Hagrid's hut. When we arrived, Harry made to knock on his door, but stopped when we heard what seemed to be loud moans coming from the other side. Getting over the apprehension, Harry put his ear to the door.

"Is that… Fang?" Harry asked us, resulting in Ron and Hermione putting their ears to the door as well.

"Think we should get someone?" Ron asked in an anxious tone.

"Hagrid!" Harry called while banging on his door. "Hagrid are you there?"

We got heavy footsteps in reply. A moment later Hagrid opened the door. He was not a pretty sight. His eyes were red and puffy with tears coating his face from his eyes to his vest. He then proceeded to fling himself onto Harry's neck, which is an awkward sight seeing as how the man is literally twice Harry's size. Seeing our friend about to collapse under the half giant's weight, Ron, Hermione, and I grabbed him on the shoulders or under the arms and dragged him back into the hut. We got him to his table, where he collapsed into his chair and continued to sob uncontrollably.

"Hagrid, what is it?" an aghast Hermione inquired.

"Read the letter," Hagrid managed to get out between sobs.

Harry grabbed an official looking envelope off of the table and read the contents aloud. It was a letter from the board of governors that said Hagrid wasn't to blame for the Malfoy incident, but there would still be a hearing as Buckbeak has been deemed a danger.

"Oh," Ron said dejectedly. "But you said Buckbeak is a good hippogriff. I bet he'll get off."

"Yeh don' know them gargoyles at the Committee fer the Disposal o' Dangerous Creatures," Hagrid wailed. "They've got it in fer interestin' creatures!"

A sudden bang drew our attention to the corner of his cabin where Buckbeak was chained up and chomping on something bloody.

"I couldn' leave him out in the snow!" Hagrid choked. "All alone, on Christmas!"

The trio looked at each other and tried to think of something to say that was supportive.

"You'll need to come up with the best defense you can Hagrid," I told him.

"It won't matter," he insisted. "All the members of the committee are scared of Lucius Malfoy. They are in his pocket. If I lose this case Buckbeak'll-" He finished with a slitting movement along his neck to signify decapitation.

The trio then went into overdrive in giving Hagrid reassurance that eventually seemed to make it through to him. Ron offered to make a cup of tea, explaining that that is what his mother does when someone is upset. While Hermione told Hagrid she would research previous cases for precedent in setting up his defense, and Harry assured him that he could call the three of them in as witnesses.

Hagrid finally calmed down and started to complain about the dementors and how he has to walk by them every time he goes to the Three Broomsticks to get a drink. He compared it to being in Azkaban. I had no idea he had been there, and when I looked over to the trio, I saw that they weren't surprised. I decided to ask about it later.

The visit to Hagrid's, while depressing, yielded the response desired by Ron and Hermione. Harry had not forgotten about Black, but he has lost his thoughts of revenge for the time being. After making sure Hagrid was going to be okay, we all went back to the castle. We spent the rest of the day and all of the next going to the library and searching through a copious amount of books, searching for anything we could use for the case.

Christmas morning arrived, and surprisingly I was not the first one to wake up. Ron decided that it would be a good idea to come in and wake me up.

"Wake up Gnocx, it's Christmas!" he yelled from the doorway. "Im going to get Harry out of bed. Come into our dorm and we'll open presents. Bring yours."

I listened to him and got out of bed. I looked and, surprisingly, there was a small package wrapped on the end of my bed. I picked it up and went out of the room, down the stairs, and into the third year boy's dorm to see Ron pelting Harry with his pillow. I sat down on one of the beds while Harry gathered himself and Ron began to tear into his wrapped gifts.

"Another sweater from Mum… maroon again… see if you got one too." Ron told Harry.

Indeed Harry did get a sweater. It was scarlet with a lion on it. She also sent him a dozen home-baked mince pies, Christmas cake, and a box of nut brittle.

While he was opening those, I decided to open my present. I carefully took off the wrapping paper and revealed a small black notebook. It was obviously a muggle item as it was made with paper and not parchment. There was a space in the binding where a black pen was tucked in. I opened the notebook to the first page and a slip of paper fell out. Ron and Harry watched me as I picked the paper off of my lap and read it aloud.

_Traveling the worlds is an arduous task, but exceedingly rewarding. I thought you might like something to chronicle your travels. Save the friends and memories you make in this book. Good luck in your journey, and I hope you find what you're looking for._

_Sincerely, _

_A friend_

_P.S. The book is spelled to increase its length once you fill it. The pen is also spelled to never run out of ink. I thought it would be convenient._

"Who do you think sent it?" Harry asked.

"Well seeing as how the only ones who know other than you are Dumbledore, McGonagall, Lupin, and Snape. I have a pretty good idea," I stated.

"Wait," Ron interrupted. "Snape knows?"

"Yes, and he doesn't care for me much," I said.

Harry had just moved all of his gifts to the side and saw something long and thin wrapped underneath them.

"What's that?" Ron asked as Harry picked it up and began to unwrap it.

Harry ripped the paper open and they both gasped at the brand new broomstick that was in Harry's lap. I recognized it as the new Firebolt that Harry had been enamored with during our stay at The Leaky Cauldron. Immediately I grew wary. As far as I knew none of Harry's living relatives were rich or cared enough to buy him something this expensive.

"I don't believe it," Ron said as he and Harry marveled at it. "Who sent it?"

"Look and see if there is a card," I told them.

In response, Ron ripped the paper to shreds trying to find anything.

"Nothing!" he exclaimed. "Who would spend this much on you?"

"I'm sure it wasn't the Dursleys," Harry said.

"Maybe it was Dumbledore," Ron said in reply. "He sent you the invisibility cloak anonymously."

I filed away the information that Harry possessed an invisibility cloak for future use.

"That was my dad's though," Harry reasoned. "He was just giving me my inheritance. There is no way he would spend hundreds of galleons on me. It screams favoritism. Malfoy would have a field day with that."

"Speaking of," Ron said with a growing grin. "Imagine the look on his face when he sees you with that."

Harry smirked at that.

"What about Lupin?" Ron guessed.

"Lupin?" the scar headed teen replied.

"Same concept Ron, it would be seen as favoritism. Besides, have you seen his clothes?" I asked him.

"What are you three talking about?" Hermione said as she finally entered the room holding Crookshanks in her arms.

"Don't bring that thing in here!" Ron shouted as he grabbed Scabbers and placed him in his shirt pocket.

Hermione's jaw dropped as she looked at the Firebolt and placed Crookshanks on the bed I was sitting on.

"Who sent you that Harry?" Hermione gasped.

"No idea, there was no card or anything," Harry replied.

Unsurprisingly to me, Hermione got a bothered look on her face. Her face fell and she bit her lip.

"What's wrong with you?" Ron sighed.

"Don't you three find this odd?" she asked. "This is supposed to be a really good broom, isn't it?"

"It's the best broom out there Hermione." Harry confirmed.

"So it must have been expensive," she concluded. "Who would send something like that to Harry, and not even say they did?"

"Who cares," Ron exclaimed. "Listen, Harry, can I have a go on it?"

"Wait," Hermione and I said at the same time.

We looked at each other and Hermione continued.

"I don't think anyone should ride that broom yet," she said shrilly.

Harry and Ron glared at her and I was about to say my piece when I saw Crookshanks prepare to lunge out of the corner of my eye. I had enough time to grab him by the back of the next before he reached his target, Ron.

"Get him out of here!" he bellowed as I handed the squirming feline to Hermione.

Ron had jumped when Crookshanks started hissing when I grabbed him. He accidentally kicked Harry's trunk and the pocket sneakoscope that was hidden In Harry's trunk started going off.

"I forgot about that," Harry said picking it up out of the trunk.

Crookshanks started to hiss at the object in Harry's hand and Hermione had finally taken him out at Ron's insistence. Once she left the sneakoscope stopped whizzing and I turned my attention to Ron as he cradled his rat that had tried jumping out of his pocket. Needless to say the rodent did not look well.

"He's not looking good, is he?" Harry said.

"He'd be fine if that monster would leave him alone," Ron said angrily.

The Christmas spirit seemed to have disappeared that morning. Hermione locked her cat in her dorm room and her and Ron refused to speak to each other. Harry gave up on getting them to talk and settled on examining his Firebolt. I had set myself by the fire and made an effort to finish the book I had been reading. I don't know what it is about _The Count of Monte Cristo,_ but I couldn't put it down. During my voyage into the mind of Edmond Dantes, I found myself contemplating the even more vexing situation that was Crookshank's seeming obsession and utter hatred for Ron's rat that seems to run deeper than a predator and prey relationship. For my nonexistence, I can't think of an explanation. I feel as though there is a piece of information right under my nose and it is what connects everything.

I am pulled out of my musing as we all head down to the Great Hall for lunch. We arrived to see the house tables had been moved against the wall and there was a lone, circular table in the middle of the hall. The table had thirteen chairs around it and I found myself with an expected rush of déjà vu. Dumbledore, Snape, Flitwick, Sprout, and McGonagall were sitting around the table and Filch was also there. The other seats belong to a Slytherin fifth year and two nervous looking first years.

Dumbledore wished us a Merry Christmas and we took our seats. Before we began to eat, the door to the Entrance Hall burst open to reveal Professor Trelawney, in all her green, beetle like, glory. She told us how she had seen in the beyond that she would be joining us for lunch. She also spouted off some nonsense about 13 people eating together and the first one to leave is the first to die. She made the 14th, so she decided to "save us from doom" Hermione rolled her eyes as Trelawney sat down. Trelawney inquired the whereabouts of Lupin to which the headmaster replied that he had taken ill again.

After two hours of stuffing our faces, Harry and Ron stood to leave.

"Coming, Hermione?" Harry asked.

"No," she muttered quickly. "I'd like a word with Professor McGonagall."

Already knowing what she wanted to do, I stood up and patted her on the shoulder. I turned and put a hand on Ron and Harry's backs as I pushed them out of the hall. We made our way to Gryffindor tower and had a drunken Sir Cadogan open the doorway. Ron and Harry went to immediately admiring his broom as I grabbed a chair and went at my book with a serious interest in finishing before the inevitable maelstrom arrived.

Sure enough, after a few minutes of reading, Hermione came through the portrait hole with McGonagall on her tail.

"So that's it is it?" the Transfiguration teacher said as she approached them. "Miss Granger just informed me that you received a broomstick Potter.

She snatched the broom up and started inspecting it.

"There was no note or identification of the sender?" she asked.

"No," Harry reluctantly replied.

"I see…" McGonagall whispered. "Well, I'm afraid that I am going to have to take this Mr. Potter."

"What!" Harry and Ron shouted. "Why?"

"It will have to be checked for jinxes," McGonagall replied firmly. "I'm no expert but Madame Hooch and Professor Flitwick will just strip it down and make sure there are no problems. It should only take a couple of weeks."

With that said, she took her leave, broom in hand. Ron then rounded on Hermione.

"Why did you go to McGonagall?" Ron yelled.

Hermione threw the book she was hiding behind aside and stood. I was watching this all over my book.

"Because I thought- and McGonagall agreed- that that broom could have been sent by Sirius Black!"

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**Once again I hope I can be forgiven. Just three chapters to go and Volume One will be finished, and I beleve that with this new chapter I will come to about 40,000 words. I find that exciting. See you next week.**


	9. Chapter 8

**Hey! Not much to say this time. Here is chapter 8. Just two more after this.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything, buy my OC. I'm just playing puppetmaster.**

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Chapter 8

Needless to say, that after the whole fiasco with the Firebolt, Ron and Harry were pissed with Hermione and irritated with me for agreeing with what she did. Hermione tended to avoid the common room for a while and Harry and Ron avoided her. The two would only talk to me occasionally out of necessity. With this reprieve in social activity, I had finally finished my book and decided to make good with my Christmas gift. I decided to write down everything that has happened to me from as far back as I could remember. I had to admit that using a pen beat out a quill anytime, and was less of a nuisance.

This pattern of avoidance continued until after New Year's and the rest of the school returning, making the common room unpleasantly loud and crowded again. Wood immediately cornered Harry and tried to address his dementor problem. Once he explained that Lupin was going to teach him how to repel dementors, he backed off. He then addressed his lack of a broom and then started acting like a crazed fan girl when Ron told him that Harry had gotten a Firebolt for Christmas. He dismayed when he was told McGonagall took it away to be tested and swore to Harry that he would "set her straight" before taking off. I looked up from my notebook to address him.

"Wood is under the mistaken impression that what he says will matter," I told Ron and Harry from the chair I was currently in.

I received a set of glares for my trouble.

Classes had started the next day. I was unfortunate enough to have Divination and History of Magic on the first day back. I had History of Magic last and after it had mercifully ended, I went to meet up with the trio who just had Defense Against the Dark Arts and were heading to the Great Hall for dinner. I found them discussing Professor Lupin.

"Still looks ill, doesn't he?" Ron asked as I caught up with Hermione, who was walking behind them. "What do you reckon is the matter with him?"

From next to me, Hermione made an impatient noise. Ron immediately rounded on her.

"And what are you 'tutting' at us for?" Ron asked in an irritated tone.

"It's nothing," she defended.

"It was not nothing," Ron stated, "I was wondering what was wrong with Lupin and you—"

"Well isn't it obvious," she interrupted and made me raise an eyebrow.

Obviously she had figured out Lupin's secret and was upset that the other two hadn't figured it out yet.

"Well if you know what's wrong then tell us," Ron demanded.

"Forget it," Hermione huffed and made to storm off.

Before she could get too far I decided to send a message.

"Did anyone else notice the full moon during Christmas," I told them, resulting in two bewildered looks and one of pure shock. "I thought it was nice that it appeared on a clear night."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Harry asked me.

"Nothing," I replied. "Just felt that the tension needed diffusing, and what better than a random comment to make me look crazy and get a laugh."

They just continued their odd staring. I faked a sigh and walked ahead of them. Hermione was the first to gather her wits and followed me.

"You know?" she whispered to me when she caught up.

"Yeah," I replied, "Snape wanted to get people to figure it out. Don't give him the satisfaction of knowing he succeeded."

She stayed quiet as she walked faster and pulled ahead of me.

That night Harry had his first lesson in repelling dementors. When he returned to the common room he told Ron and I about it with Hermione listening from behind her books. The animosity between Ron and Hermione hadn't abated since the Firebolt incident and the quidditch match between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw was quickly approaching. It had been weeks since Christmas and Harry and Ron continued to pester McGonagall about the broom. She eventually got irritated and told him to wait until she brought it to him if it wasn't hexed.

Other than the drama of the broomstick, Ron was still baffled as to how Hermione was getting to all of her classes and she was not saying a word about it. When she wasn't foiling Ron's efforts to figuring out her attendance, she was studying and asking Harry about his lessons with Lupin. Harry had told us that his lessons weren't faring well, but he said that Lupin attributed it to the fact that learning how to produce a patronus was difficult for even a full grown wizard to accomplish.

February had come and there had been little movement by the Heartless. I was on my way back to Gryffindor tower after a meeting with Dumbledore. I had reached the seventh floor when I saw Harry, Ron, and Neville talking at the portrait of Sir Cadogan. I walked up in time to hear that Neville had forgotten the password again and he lost his paper with the passwords written on them. It was common knowledge that Neville had a penchant for not remembering the passwords, and it did not help that Sir. Cadogan had a habit of changing the passwords constantly.

"Oddsbodikins," Harry said as I walked up to them.

I noticed that in his hands was his Firebolt.

"McGonagall gave it back then?" I asked as we walked into the common room.

He only had time to confirm what I had asked before he was bombarded with people that wanted to gawk at his new broomstick. While Ron and Harry were focusing on appeasing the masses, I strode over to where Hermione was sitting hunched over her work and I sat down beside her to wait for the crowd to disperse. She gave me a look telling me she recognized my presence. It was then that I noticed that she looked just as haggard and tired as Lupin does normally.

"Don't you think you should drop a class or two?" I asked.

She looked at me and had an expression that looked like I just slapped her in the face.

"No," she replied, "why would you suggest something so preposterous?"

In response I only point at her neck where a sliver of a golden chain can be seen. She follows my cue and gasps before adjusting her uniform to better hide the Timeturner she has concealed around her neck. She opened her mouth to speak but I beat her to it.

"Don't ask me how I know because I am not going to tell you," I told her. "I know it is none of my business and that you want to learn as much as you can, but is it worth spreading yourself thin enough that you have to have to turn back time?"

"I'm perfectly alright," she huffs, with the most miniscule amount of uncertainty before going back to her books.

About ten minutes later, Harry and Ron had shown the Firebolt to almost everyone in the common room, so the sea of people had parted revealing where Hermione and I were. They slowly made their way to us and stood in front of Hermione. She looked up.

"I got it back," Harry stated, holding up the Firebolt with a grin.

"See, Hermione?" Ron picked up. "There was nothing wrong with it."

"Well-There might have been," she retorted with a glare directed at Ron. "At least you know that it is safe now!"

"I suppose so," Harry conceded. "I should take this upstairs."

"I'll do it," Ron said vehemently, "I need to give Scabbers his tonic anyway."

Ron took the Firebolt and cradled it to him as if he were holding some glass antiquity, and headed off to their dorm.

"Can I sit here then?" Harry asked.

"Yeah," she replied as she cleared what books she had on the chair, allowing him to take the seat.

As he sat his eyes wandered to the myriad of assignments and materials on the table in front of us.

"How are you getting through all this stuff?" he asked her.

"Oh, well-working hard, you know?" said Hermione.

"Have you considered dropping a few subjects?" he asked her.

She glared at me when I let a smirk appear on my face and turned to him.

"I couldn't do that!" she grumbled, annoyed.

For the most part, Harry ignored that and reached for one of her Arithmancy charts.

"Arithmancy looks terrible," he assumed.

"Oh no," she refuted, "it's wonderful; it's my favorite subject."

We never got to find out why Arithmancy was so wonderful because before she could open her mouth again, we heard a strangled yell from the dorms. Seconds later, Ron came charging down the stairs, with a bed sheet dragging behind him.

"Look!" he shouted, shoving the sheet in her face. "Look!"

"Ron, what-?"

"Scabbers! Look! Scabbers!" he yelled.

Hermione looked baffled and a little bit scared as she leaned back from him. I stood and looked at the sheet he was holding and saw what was, most definitely, blood stains. Not only that, but mixed in with the blood and spread throughout the sheet were unmistakable ginger cat hairs.

"Blood!" he screamed, echoing through the now deadly silent common room. "He's gone! And you know what was on the floor?"

"N-no," she squeaked.

As a response, Ron threw something down on Hermione's rune translations. The three of us got closer and saw that on the spiky shapes were more ginger cat hairs.

Ron and Hermione's friendship appeared to have ended. The loss of Scabbers created a fissure that appeared to be irreparable. Ron was still angry at Hermione for never taking Crookshanks' desire to eat Scabbers seriously. She only made it worse when she suggested that he look for him under the other boys' beds. If that wasn't enough, she got angry at him because he assumed that Crookshanks ate Scabbers and that he had no proof to confirm it. She described how Ron was prejudiced against Crookshanks from the day he jumped on his head in the Magical Menagerie.

Harry had made it clear that he felt that Crookshanks did eat Scabbers, and he told her that all the evidence points to the conclusion that he did. She ended up losing her temper with Harry as well.

"Okay, side with Ron, I knew you would!" she screeched. "First the Firebolt, now Scabbers, everything's my fault, isn't it! Just leave me alone Harry, I have a lot of work to do!"

I personally had no idea what to think. I knew that the ugly cat had had it out for Scabbers, but that situation had always been strange to me. Something is happening here and I haven't yet found out what.

Ron had not been faring well. Like Harry had predicted, Ron had been devastated by the loss of his pet. His brothers had not made it any easier.

"Come on, Ron, you were always complaining about how useless Scabbers was," Fred told him. "And he's been off color for ages, he was wasting away. It was probably better for him to snuff it quickly-one swallow-he probably didn't feel a thing.

"Fred!" Ginny exclaimed, giving him a look that I could only describe as a death glare.

"All he did was eat and sleep, Ron, you said it yourself," George said

"He bit Goyle for us once!" Ron defended. "Remember Harry?"

"That is true," Harry told Ginny, George, Fred, and I.

"His finest hour," said Fred, not even close to keeping a straight face. "Let the scar on Goyle's finger stand as a lasting testament to his memory. Come on, Ron, get yourself to Hogsmeade and buy yourself a new rat."

Even I found Fred's comment to have a lack of tact, and I'm, literally, heartless.

Getting desperate, Harry offered to let Ron watch the last quidditch practice before the match this weekend. Ron seemed to brighten a little at this and asked if he could shoot a few goals with his broom. He reminded me of a little boy at the time. Eventually they left to go to practice, I elected to stay behind.

That night Harry and Ron had come back some time after the rest of the team. When they came back in Ron was very noticeably cheerier. They told me about how easily Harry was able to handle the broom and about how he effortlessly caught the snitch multiple times. Then Ron had a chance at riding and apparently had the time of his life. However, on their way back, they told me they ran into Crookshanks while he was lurking around the grounds. Ron then complained about how Hermione was still letting him run around without some sort of supervision.

I had been about to go to bed when Harry stopped me.

"Hey, Gnocx," he called.

I turned around and faced him and Ron.

"Yes," I said with a raised eyebrow.

"You're strong, right?" he asked.

"I would like to believe so," I replied, honestly perplexed as to why he would ask something. "Why?"

Judging by the look on Ron's face, he was just as confused.

"Do you think you could fight dementors?" he asked.

It then started making sense.

"They are not going to show up at the match again Harry," I told him. "Even if they did I assume I would be able to fight them off if they don't affect me again like the one did on the train. Although I can assure you if they do, I can't do anything without revealing myself, so you would have to rely on Dumbledore."

Harry seemed to relax a little after I told him this and Ron gave him a sympathetic look. Having nothing more to say I went to bed.

I woke up the next morning early enough to catch Harry walking out of the common room surrounded by a group of boys. Apparently they felt as though the new broom needed guarding. I followed them while making sure to not become one of the faces in the crowd. We reached the Great Hall and the Gryffindors enjoyed the looks of shock given from the Slytherin team.

I took a seat and watched as Wood made Harry set the Firebolt on the table and positioned it as if it was a precious exhibit in a museum. The Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs swarmed over to join in the gawking. Cedric Diggory came over and congratulated Harry on the excellent replacement for his Nimbus, while Penelope Clearwater, Percy's girlfriend from Ravenclaw, asked to hold it.

"Now, Penny, no sabotage!" Percy said while she was examining it. "She and I have got a ten galleon bet on the outcome of the match."

Penelope then took her leave after setting the Firebolt back down and thanking Harry. Once she left, Percy then hastily whispered something in Harry's ear before going to join her.

"Sure you can handle that broom, Potter?" a familiar drawling voice asked.

Sure enough, Malfoy and two goons showed up to get a closer look.

"Yeah, I reckon so," Harry replied.

"Comes with plenty of special features, doesn't it?" he asked, eyes glittering malevolently. "Like a parachute, in case you get near a dementor."

Crabbe and Goyle sniggered at this, while Wood and Ron glared at them.

"Pity you couldn't put an extra arm on yours," Harry replied, "then it could catch the snitch for you."

I was impressed at his quick thinking with the insults and I told him as much while the Gryffindor team and Ron had started laughing hysterically. Malfoy just narrowed his eyes and went away.

They left for the pitch at a quarter to eleven and I made my way to the stands. Eventually the teams made their way out to the field and then the match began. McGonagall had to chastise Lee Jordan more than once for making his commentary an advertisement for the Firebolt. On the field Harry had been looking for the snitch while the Ravenclaw seeker, Cho Chang, was tailing him. He quickly got rid of her by accelerating across the field and around the Ravenclaw goal posts. Then all of a sudden he took a dive toward the ground. I looked down and saw that he had seen the snitch. Cho Chang must have caught on because she dived after him.

Then one of the beaters from the Ravenclaw team had hit a bludger that Harry managed to avoid, however, he lost the snitch. In retaliation, George Weasley hit a bludger directly toward the beater responsible.

Gryffindor was leading eighty points to zero, and McGonagall was yelling some more at Jordan for his constant advertising.

Harry had seen the snitch again, circling the Gryffindor goal posts. He flew toward them, but was blocked by Cho Chang. He was hesitant in doing anything to oppose her. My guess is because he felt she was attractive.

_Idiot teenagers,_ was the thought going through my head as I saw that he had lost the snitch once again. He then pulled up and went high enough so that he was about 20 feet above the match. Cho, who had obviously wanted to tail him instead of looking for the snitch herself, followed. Harry then did something that impressed me and he took a dive only to pull up when she did, sending her hurtling downward and away from him, so he could look for the snitch again.

Harry then took off toward the Ravenclaw end. I assumed that he saw the snitch again, and then Ron, who was next to me, grabbed my arm.

"Gnocx, look!" he yelled while pointing down to the ground of the pitch.

My eyes widened when I saw three dementors striding onto the field. I immediately put a hand on my head, preparing for the impending migraine. However, it never came and I relaxed when I saw something odd.

"Since when do dementors have legs?" I asked Ron.

"They don't," he replied as he looked up at me, confused.

I pointed back to them and saw that a large silver mass came out of Harry's wand and had made its way to the 'dementors' and knocked them off their feet. No one seemed to care, however, because the Gryffindors were all cheering at Harry, who was now engulfed in a massive group hug in midair as he was surrounded by his team. Once they touched down they were surrounded by the spectators, and Ron held up his arm, shouting affirmatives in victory.

Lupin had made his way behind Harry and whispered in his ear. Harry then turned around to see the haggard looking professor.

"The dementors didn't affect me at all," Harry said ecstatically, "I didn't feel a thing."

"That's because they weren't dementors," I said, bringing myself closer to Harry, Ron, and Lupin.

"What?" Harry asked me.

"Come and see," Lupin said, grabbing his arm and leading him out of the crowd.

Ron and I followed, pushing our way through the spectators and came out of the crowd to see McGonagall yelling at the crumpled heaps that were Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, and Marcus Flint, the Slytherin quidditch captain.

"An unworthy trick!" McGonagall screeched. "A blatant attempt at sabotaging the Gryffindor seeker! Detention! And fifty points from Slytherin! Make no mistake; I will be speaking with Professor Dumbledore about this! Here he comes now!"

Ron started roaring with laughter at the Slytherin's predicament. At this time Fred and George made their way over to us.

"Come on you guys!" Fred said, slinging his arms over Harry's and Ron's shoulders. "Party in the common room, now!"

"Right," Harry said, who was obviously happier now than he had been all year.

The party in the common room was huge. It was as if the team had won the cup instead of just the match. Fred and George had disappeared for a little while then reappeared, arms filled with Honeydukes sweets, butterbeers, and a variety of other items.

"How did you get these?" Angelina Johnson, one of Gryffindor's chasers, squealed.

Fred whispered something into Harry's ear while George winked at me as he was handing me two butterbeers. Obviously the marauders helped them out. I raised one of the bottles in thanks and made my way to Hermione, who, shocker, was the only one not enjoying the festivities. I put one of the bottles on the back of her neck. She jumped and glared at me as I handed her the bottle.

"You don't have to be nice to me you know?" she told me.

"I'm aware," I said. "You should know by now that I don't pick sides in your fights."

Her look turned somewhat grateful before Harry came over.

"Did you even come to the match?" he asked her.

"Of course I did," she replied in a strangely high pitched voice, not looking up from her Muggle Studies book. "You did very well and I am glad we won, but I have to finish this by Monday.

"Why don't you come and have some food?" Harry offered while looking over at Ron.

Obviously Harry was hoping that Ron would be ready to bury the hatchet. He forgets that Ron is one to bear a grudge.

"I can't Harry, I have 472 pages left to read," she muttered. "Besides…" she looked over at Ron as well. "He doesn't want me to join in."

Then, almost as if he had heard us talking, Ron decided to make an ass out of himself.

"If Scabbers hadn't just been _eaten,_ he could have had some of those Fudge Flies," he said a little bit too loudly. "He used to really like them-"

He didn't get any further because Hermione then burst into tears. She grabbed her book and the butterbeer I gave her, tucked them under her arm, and headed off up the stairs to the girls dorm and out of sight.

"Can't you give her a break?" Harry asked quietly.

"Nope," he replied flatly. "If she just acted as if she was sorry-but she will never admit she is wrong. She's still acting as if Scabbers has gone on vacation or something."

It was about eleven before I decided to go to bed for the night. I don't know when the party ended, but I was rudely awakened when one of the boys in my dorm decided that he thought my bed was his and jumped onto my back. He lost his balance and fell onto the floor. I just used my arms to lift myself up and looked on the ground next to me. The offender gave me an apologetic look before he shied away from me and went to his own bed. Satisfied that no one was going to wake me, I fell back to sleep.

The last thing I expected was to be woken up by a scream. I don't know at what time it happened, but there was a glass shattering scream that echoed throughout the tower. I quickly got myself up and listened. Above the scrambling of my roommates and various questions of, "What's going on?" I realized that the one screaming was Ron. I ran to the door and swung it open to see other students from the upper years coming down the stairs to investigate. As I went out onto the staircase, I heard one of the doors below me slam shut. I headed down in time to see the third year boy's dorm slam open and the five occupants head down to the common room. Ignoring the crowd behind me I looked inside the dorm. What met me was nothing short of chaos. There were lamps and various items spread on the floor, but the thing that drew the most attention from me is the slashed curtains that are hanging around Ron's bed.

I headed back out and descended the rest of the stairs to the common room where all the tower's occupants were gathering. In the common room people had started asking questions.

"What are we doing?" said one.

The only thing lighting the room had was the remnants of the fire in the fireplace. I had just come down in the middle of a conversation.

"Are you sure you weren't dreaming Ron?" asked Dean Thomas.

"I'm telling you, I saw him!" Ron insisted hysterically.

More kids had come down and were now filling into the room.

"Excellent," Fred Weasley called, "are we still going?"

"Everyone back upstairs!" Percy ordered, hurrying into the common room, pinning his Head Boy badge to his pajamas.

"Perce—Sirius Black!" Ron said faintly, "In our dormitory! With a knife! Woke me up!"

That officially woke everyone up.

"Nonsense!" Percy said, obviously startled. "You had too much to eat, Ron—had a nightmare—"

"I'm telling you—" Ron tried to argue.

"Now this is enough!"

The one and only head of Gryffindor house slammed the portrait behind her as she stormed into the common room. Once inside she glared at everyone in the room.

"I am jovial that Gryffindor won the match, but this is getting ridiculous! Percy, I expected better from you!" she scolded.

"I certainly didn't authorize this, Professor!" Percy cried indignantly. "I was just telling them to go back to bed! My brother, Ron, here, had a nightmare—"

"It wasn't a nightmare!" Ron screamed. "Professor, I woke up, and Sirius Black was standing over me holding a knife!"

McGonagall just stared at him.

"Don't be ridiculous, Weasley, how could he possibly have gotten through the portrait hole?"

"Ask him!" he shouted, pointing a shaking finger at the portrait of Sir Cadogan. "Ask him if he saw—"

Narrowing her eyes in suspicion, she pushed the portrait back open and went back out into the corridor. The whole tower listened to the ensuing conversation.

"Sir Cadogan, did you let a man into the tower just now?" she asked the night.

"Certainly, good lady!" he replied enthusiastically.

You could hear a pin drop as the silence reigned in the tower. One by one each face taking on a horrified look.

"You—you did?" she asked. "But—but the password!"

"He had 'em!" Cadogan cried proudly. "Had the whole week's, my lady! Read 'em off a little piece of paper."

She then pulled herself back through the portrait hole. Face white as a ghost and eyes radiating fury.

"Which person," she said, her voice shaking, "which abysmally foolish person wrote down this week's passwords and left them lying around?"

I had already figured it out when Cadogan mentioned a piece of paper. The conversation from earlier in the week playing in my mind, I turned to face Neville Longbottom, who had started to raise his hand as he was trembling from head to toe.

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**I always feel bad for poor Neville. Well, leave any comments. I don't care if they are anonymous.**


	10. Chapter 9

**Hey guys! Another Friday. Man this week just sort of flew by. Ha. Anyway. This chapter is the longest in a while. Before the authors note it is 4900 words on the nose. I can't believe this is almost over already. I digress. A lot happens this chapter and it ends in a big cliffhanger, or at least I believe it is a big cliffhanger, if it's anything to go by my best friend/editor yelled at me for ending it like this. It was very entertaining. (I love you Persephone Rosamunde, my wonderful editor!) Next week I upload the last chapter and unfortunately that one is very short compared to all the chapters of this story. I plan to crack the whip on myself and get more work done on Volume Two, I tried last night and the night before, but my internet and I are in the middle of a war and I'm losing. I hope you guys enjoy this and I am very sorry if you feel it is rushed or anything throughout this fic was. You need to read my previous A/N's to understand my thinking. This story has had 188 views since I started posting it... I believe that that is a decent number considering this is a story with an OC. Thank you to those people and to my reviewers. As I've said before, I have a story to tell and I believe it can be a good story, or else I wouldn't have wasted my time in writing this.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but my OC.**

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Chapter 9

No one in Gryffindor tower slept that night. The castle had to be searched again and we were all waiting for McGonagall to return. I knew that they wouldn't find anything. If I am right, Black left the tower, turned into his dog form, and ran out of the castle and down the hole at the base of the Whomping Willow. Out of curiosity, I had looked out one of the windows toward the Willow, and I noticed that instead of the limbs swaying with the wind, it was unnaturally still. I had watched it for a moment before it suddenly started moving again. That told me that there was definitely a way to keep the Willow from flailing its branches.

Later McGonagall came back, and, as I had predicted, she only told us that Black had escaped once again.

The next day extra security measures had been taken. Flitwick was teaching the doors at the Entrance Hall to recognize Black from a giant picture. Filch had also been going throughout the castle and essentially sealing up any secret entrance, hole, or crack he could find. Ron, Harry, and I noticed that the statue of the one eyed witch on the third floor remained unguarded.

"Do you think we should tell someone about it?" Harry asked us.

"It's unlikely that that is how he is getting into the castle," I assured them. "He wouldn't risk getting caught entering a place like Honeydukes."

Harry was exceedingly relieved to hear me say this. He would have been devastated if he lost his chances to go to Hogsmeade.

Ron had become somewhat of a celebrity since the incident. He was more than happy to share the details of his experience, although it had shaken him to his core. According to Ron, he was asleep and he heard ripping noises. He attributed them to a dream he could have been having. But then he felt a draft, so he rolled over after seeing that one side of the hangings on his bed. Once he rolled over he had seen Black standing there in all his glory. He was holding a knife that got longer every time he told the story. They looked at each other, then Ron screamed and he fled.

"Why though?" he had asked Harry one of the times after he told the story. "Why did he run?"

While I am sure Harry is wondering the same thing, the thing I am wondering is why he was ripping up Ron's hangings. I find myself with one more piece to a puzzle I can't figure out. The first time he entered the castle he did it when no one was in the common room. Then he came in while everyone is sleeping. He is too methodical in his thinking to have just picked the wrong bed. Even if that was the case, he could have just killed Ron, he has no problem killing innocent people, which was proven when he used that curse to take out those muggles twelve years ago. The only reason why I think he wouldn't run is because he was up against five unarmed boys, four of them sleeping. Then he would have had to kill the students in all the dorms of Gryffindor tower because they would have been awakened by the commotion. None of this makes sense. I once again find myself with the frustrating thought that there is something I missed that would clear up this whole picture.

Poor Neville was disgraced. McGonagall was so livid with him that she banned him from all future Hogsmeade visits for the year, given him detention, and forbidden anyone from giving him the password to the tower. He was forced to wait outside the tower every night until someone came to let him in. The worst punishment came from his grandmother, who had sent him a Howler. I had to ask what one was but I was only told to listen. The morning it came, Neville had turned as pale as death and he bolted for outside the Great Hall. He could not leave in time unfortunately, because as he left a magically enhanced voice of a woman that shrieked like a banshee, telling him he has disgraced the family. Even I felt a little sorry for him, which surprised me because I am supposed to be incapable of it. I attributed it to what little memories I had recovered from the train ride giving me a kind of ghost emotion.

Harry and Ron had received an invitation to Hagrid's that same day at breakfast. They left at around six in the afternoon. They returned sometime later talking about Gryffindor's improved chances at the cup. There was a group of people clustering around the bulletin board announcing another Hogsmeade visit for the next visit. I watched them from my seat three feet from them.

"Are you gonna go?" Ron asked Harry quietly.

"Well," Harry replied, "Filch hasn't sealed the path on the third floor yet."

"Harry!" Hermione said from the table adjacent the line from me to them.

Harry jumped and turned around, noticing her for the first time.

"Harry, if you go into Hogsmeade again, I will tell McGonagall about the map!" she said with determination.

"Can you hear someone talking, Harry?" Ron growled out, looking at her with a pretty fierce glare.

"Ron, how can you let him go with you? After what Sirius Black nearly did to you! I mean it. I'll tell—" she pleaded.

"So, now you are trying to get Harry expelled!" Ron declared. "Haven't you done enough damage this year?"

Hermione made to respond, but Crookshanks leapt onto her with a small hiss. She took one look at Ron's expression, then gathered up her cat and fled to the dormitories.

"So, how about it?" Ron asked as if there had never been an interruption. "Come on, you haven't even been in Zonko's yet, and you barely saw anything the last thing we went. And you!" he said turning to me, "You haven't gone at all. Why not come with us?"

"I have to meet Dumbledore," I easily replied. "Heartless talk, etc."

"That's too bad," Ron said, turning back to Harry. "Well?"

"Alright," he conceded, "but I am bringing the cloak this time."

The meeting with Dumbledore was quick seeing as how the only things I had to discuss were my confusion on the Sirius Black issue and the fact that I was figured out by the trio. Somehow I was not surprised to see that he expected me to be found out eventually. Regarding the Black affair, I feel as though he is keeping something from me, but I decide to not press the issue. Either way, he heard what I had to say before letting me go after offering me some strange sweet that I had never heard of.

Apparently I was in the meeting longer than I thought because I ran into Harry and Ron on the way back to Gryffindor tower. Then I saw from out one of the windows that it was early in the afternoon.

"You're back early," I told them as they ran up the stairs to walk along with me.

"Malfoy saw Harry," Ron breathed.

"I thought you took the cloak." I said

"I did," Harry confirmed, "Malfoy tried to get into it with Ron by trash talking Hagrid, so I threw snowballs at them. The cloak slipped off enough for them to see my head. I ran back as quickly as I could, only to run into Snape as I was leaving the secret passage."

"Did you get in trouble?" I asked.

"No, I left the cloak in the passage," he explained. "Then he brought me to his office and accused me of being in Hogsmeade. I lied but he knew. He made me empty my pockets and I had the map with me."

"So, now Snape has the map," I deduced.

"No," Ron answered.

"Snape tried to get the map to work, but it only insulted him," Harry said, noticing my questioning look. "Then he flooed Lupin and he showed up and took the map."

"Why Lupin?" I asked, wondering why Snape would do that.

"I don't know," Ron said, "but Lupin knows it is a map. He even said he met the Marauders."

"That's probably what Snape meant," Harry said to Ron.

"What are you talking about?" I inquired of Harry.

"I told Snape it was an item from Zonko's," Harry elaborated. "He flooed Lupin and showed it to him. Lupin dismissed it and Snape said that he thought it was an item given to me directly by the creators. I didn't know what he had meant by that."

"Interesting," I said while folding my arms and resting my chin on my hand.

"What's interesting," Ron asked.

"Nothing important," I replied.

That was obviously a lie. Lupin knowing the map was a map was an interesting turn of events because he knew it existed. That got me to thinking. He claimed that he had met the Marauders, and it appears Snape knew them as well. Then, like a punch to the face, it struck me. I let a smirk of triumph appear on my face as we got to the seventh floor and headed to the portrait of the Fat Lady, who had been reinstated since Black's last visit. I needed to have a talk with our werewolf professor as soon as I could.

My thoughts were interrupted as Hermione came out of the portrait hole and came toward us. I looked at her face and noticed that she had a look of despair. She was clutching a letter in one of her hands and she looked like she was trying to keep herself from losing it.

"What?" Ron demanded obviously misinterpreting her expression. "Come to have a good gloat, or have you just turned us in."

"No," she replied shakily, "I just thought you should know that Hagrid lost. Buckbeak is going to be executed."

I was not surprised to hear this. I knew that Malfoy's father would have plenty of influence, and I knew that Hagrid would have a hard time making his case because of his confidence issues. She handed the letter to Harry.

"He—he sent me this," she told him while he opened the tear stained parchment.

Dear Hermione

We lost. I'm allowed to bring him back to Hogwarts.

Execution date to be fixed.

Beaky has enjoyed London

I won't forget all the help you gave us.

Hagrid

"They can't do this," Harry said. "Buckbeak isn't dangerous."

"Malfoy's dad frightened the Committee into it," Hermione cried, wiping tears from her eyes. "You know what he's like. They're a bunch of doddery old fools, and they were scared. There will be an appeal, there always is. Only I can't see any hope… Nothing will have changed."

"Yeah it will!" Ron interrupted with ferocity. "You don't have to do it alone this time, Hermione, I'll help."

"Oh, Ron!"

Hermione seemed to radiate relief. She threw herself at him, embracing him and breaking down. He seemed frightened by this and awkwardly patted her head. Harry and I exchanged a look and I am sure that one thought went through his mind, _it's about damn time._

"Ron, I'm really, really sorry about Scabbers…" she sobbed when she drew away from him.

"Oh—well—he was old," he dismissed completely flustered. "And he was a bit useless. You never know, Mum and Dad might get me an owl now."

We could not go and console Hagrid that evening because of the extra security measures in place. Meaning it was up to the kids to do it when they had his class. Thankfully they had his class the next day while I had potions. After class I made my way up to the Entrance Hall just in time to see Hermione smack Malfoy in the face. I was so surprised by this that I froze in place and watched. Malfoy staggered back and the others looked bewildered as she raised her hand again.

"Don't you dare call Hagrid pathetic, you foul—you evil—"

"Hermione!" Ron said weakly as he tried to grab her hand and hold her back.

"Get off, Ron!" she bellowed.

She pulled out her wand and pointed it at the terrified, ferret faced, 13 year old who had stepped back. Crabbe and Goyle looked at him as if they were awaiting orders.

"C'mon," Malfoy said meekly.

The three then left and walked past me to head down into the dungeons.

"Hermione!" Ron said, looking impressed.

"That was great," I admitted announcing my presence.

"You better beat Malfoy in the quidditch final Harry," she ordered, turning to him. "I won't be able to stomach it if Slytherin wins."

"Don't worry," Harry said. "I will. We better get going. We have Charms."

"And I have Transfiguration," I told them walking away.

The rest of the day went smoothly. There was a bit of drama when I came back to the common room in the evening. Hermione was sitting in one of the chairs, fuming. When I asked her what got her, she ranted about how her Divination lesson earlier that day. She commented on the obvious fake aspects of the class, resulting in Trelawney calling her mundane, and that resulted in her storming out of the class.

The Easter Holidays came around and the quidditch final was drawing closer. Everyone seemed to be bogged down with homework and the inter house animosity between Slytherin and Gryffindor had been reaching a fevered pitch. I found that I couldn't think about anything at the moment. The reality had hit me that I had been in this world for about eight months. I find myself growing impatient at the star shard's lack of a desire of moving me. I knew that I was safe here, but every day that went by increased my expectations of it going off. Just to make sure that it was still alive, I chose a time when no one was around to inspect it, and sure enough I could still feel my own energy flowing through it. Dumbledore could sense my unease and tried to assure me that I have nothing to worry about, but he knows full well that I don't worry.

The days before the quidditch final were nothing short of chaotic. Harry was guarded whenever he wandered the castle, and the Slytherins had constantly tried to sabotage him. Wood had been on his case for weeks, drilling into his head what needed to happen in order for them to win. It got to Harry so much that he eventually blew up on him; much to the entertainment of the twins.

The morning of the match came and the first thing I noticed when I entered the Great Hall was that Harry seemed to have something on his mind. I walked over and sat across from him.

"Something wrong," I asked.

"Just nervous about the match," he replied.

"Don't lie," I said, and he looked up at me. "I can tell something else is wrong, I can sense it."

"You're so creepy when you do that," he told me before he sighed. "Do you remember the big black dog I've told you about?"

"The one you've convinced yourself is the Grim?" I replied, knowing what he was referring to.

"Yeah," he said, "I saw it again last night."

I raised an eyebrow and gestured for him to continue.

"I woke up last night and got some water from the jug on the windowsill in my room. I saw Crookshanks, of all creatures, walking across the grounds. He got to the edge of the forest and I saw the dog come out of the forest. Then they both came toward the castle," he explained. "I mean, if the cat could see it, how can it be an omen for my death?"

"That's because it isn't," I told him, taking on a thoughtful expression. "I never believed it was."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"I'll tell you later," I told him. "Worry about the cup first."

He automatically started to focus and he finished his breakfast.

The weather for the final was the complete opposite of what it was. The sun was out and there was no wind. It was almost as if nature itself anticipated the match.

The match itself was the epitome of barbarism. The whole match was essentially the Slytherins making dirty plays such as inappropriately knocking bludgers at the chasers and knocking them off their brooms. The Gryffindor team had easily pulled ahead by the fifty points they needed. Lee Jordan was openly throwing profanities at the Slytherin team and the usually rational, Professor McGonagall, had been shaking her finger at the players with a look of righteous fury. The score had been sixty to ten when Harry had noticed the snitch twenty feet above him and Malfoy, who had been tailing him. Harry then took off after it, but he didn't make it far because Malfoy had lunged forward and, without falling off his broom, grabbed onto the back of Harry's.

Madame Hooch had accosted Malfoy and the game resumed. Harry stuck close enough to Malfoy that they kept bumping into each other. Angelina Johnson had taken the quaffle and was zooming toward the Slytherin goal posts. All the team members minus Malfoy started to head toward her to block. Harry saw this then put on a boost of speed and swept toward the Slytherins. His play worked seeing as how they dispersed, clearing Angelina's path, in order to avoid the Gryffindor seeker.

While Harry had been doing this, Malfoy had seen the snitch and went into a dive. Harry had seen what Malfoy was doing and sped off after him. Malfoy was a long way away, but Harry's Firebolt made the distance easily. Harry had caught up and knocked Malfoy's hand aside in order to, literally, snatch the victory. He pulled up and held out the fruit of his effort. The stands erupted in cheers, and when Harry touched down, he was mauled by a crying Oliver Wood and ecstatic Weasley twins. The chasers were all crying and headed over to embrace their team.

The euphoria of Gryffindor's victory lasted a week before things went back to normal. June was fast approaching and exams were among us. The question of Hermione's classes came up again when Ron got a look at her exam schedule.

Hagrid's appeal date had been set for June 6th, the day that our exams our finished and the executioner will be in attendance.

"Sounds as if they've already decided," Harry had said.

"They have, the hearing is a formality," I replied.

"They can't do this," Ron despaired. "I spent so much time reading up on this."

Ron had sort of taken over researching for Buckbeak's case and was spending about as much time on it as Hermione did.

We had noticed that Malfoy had been slowing regaining some of his swagger since his quidditch defeat. He seemed more confident than ever that Buckbeak was going to be killed, and I agreed with him.

The exams had started and I didn't think they were as bad as all that. Granted I was used to fighting Heartless as a pseudo-living, so I suppose that exams would seem tame. The exams seemed to be routine until the last day. My last exam was Defense Against the Dark Arts. Where Lupin had us going through what was essentially an obstacle course of a various amount of the different creatures he had us cover this year, along with scenarios in which to practice spells like the stunning spell.

After that exam was over, I went to the common room to unload my things. When I was there, Ron and Hermione came in and they had the most despairing looks on their faces.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Buckbeak lost," Hermione said, close to tears while handing me a letter.

Lost appeal. They're gonna execute at sunset.

Nothing you can do, so don't come down.

I don't want you to see it.

Hagrid

Just as I had finished the letter, Harry burst through the portrait hole.

"Guys," he said while panting, "Professor Trelawney, she just told me—"

Ron and Hermione interrupted him and handed him the letter.

"We've got to go," he said immediately. "He can't just sit there on his own, waiting for the executioner."

"Sunset though," Ron pointed out. "We'd never be allowed, especially you, Harry."

Harry sank when Ron said this.

"If only we had the invisibility cloak…" Harry said with a defeated tone.

"Where is it?" Hermione asked.

Harry told her he left it in the passageway to Honeydukes.

"If Snape sees me anywhere near there again, I'll be in trouble," he finished.

"That's true," Hermione said as she got to her feet… How do you open the witch's hump again?"

"You—you tap it twice and say, '_Dissendium.'" _Harry explained with a confused look.

"You're going to get it aren't you?" I asked.

She didn't bother answering me. Instead she left the common room and went through the portrait hole. With her gone for at least the next five minutes, I turned to Harry.

"What were you saying about Trelawney?"

"What?" he replied. "Oh, I had my exam with her and when she said I was finished I turned to leave, but then she started shaking and speaking in this strange voice."

Ron had become interested and I was having flashbacks to my first divination lesson.

"Do you know what she said?" I asked.

"Yeah, hold on," he replied as he started thinking. "She said something like this, 'It will happen tonight. The Dark Lord lies alone and friendless, abandoned by his followers. His servant has been chained these twelve years. Tonight, before midnight… The servant will break free and set out to rejoin his master. The Dark Lord will rise again with his servant's aid, greater and more terrible than ever he was. Tonight the servant will set out to rejoin his master.'"

"That's creepy," Ron said.

I didn't get a chance to say anything else because Hermione came back into the common room with an arm full of invisibility cloak.

"Hermione," Ron breathed. "I don't know what has gotten into you lately. First you hit Malfoy, then you walk out on Trelawney—"

Hermione blushed at the praise.

Harry stuffed the invisibility cloak on him as we went to dinner and once dinner was finished the four of us were going to sneak out onto the grounds. Once dinner was finished, I waited with the three for the Great Hall to clear out. Just as Harry threw his cloak over us, my senses picked up on darkness for the first time in about a month.

"Not now," I whispered.

"What is it?" Hermione asked, concerned.

"There are Heartless on one of the levels above us," I told them. "I need to go take care of it. Tell Hagrid I'm sorry."

They let me out of the cloak and I broke into a run out of the hall and up the staircase. I followed my senses to the third floor and they led me outside the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. I realized that Lupin was probably under attack, so I donned my coat just in case there was someone else in the room and I kicked the door open.

I entered the room to see Lupin behind his desk with his wand out, pointed at about a dozen shadow Heartless that decided that it would be a good idea to attack him all at once. The Heartless were all suspended in the air and appeared to be frozen, as if someone had hit a pause button.

"Well, it's about time you showed up," Lupin said, relieved.

"What did you do?" I asked, genuinely curious as I took my hood off, pulled out my wand, made them change into my blades, and casually sliced through all the frozen opposition as I made my way to his desk.

"A little spell called, _'Immobulus,'"_ He told me as he put his wand away. "I see that the others decided to break the rules and go to see Hagrid."

It was then that I noticed that the open Marauder's Map was lying on his desk.

"Well from what I've heard Harry is his father's son," I said. "Isn't that right, Moony?"

He did not do a very good job at hiding his surprise.

"I figured it out when Harry told me you took the map and that you knew what it was," I explained. "I then made the correlation between your fake name and what you turn into. So, who were the others?"

He sat down with a resigned sigh.

"As you know I was Moony. Other than that, James Potter was Prongs, Peter Pettigrew was Wormtail, and—"

"Sirius Black was Padfoot," I finished. "I ran into him on Halloween and he turned into a dog in order to send me down a flight of stairs. I know how he is getting onto the grounds, but I don't know how he is getting passed the Whomping Willow."

He raised an eyebrow at me.

"Why didn't you say anything?" he asked me folding his hands together.

"Because something about this whole affair isn't right," I told him. The first night he broke into the castle was a night that no one was in the dormitories. Then the second time he ripped the hangings on Ron's bed. I have been under the impression that he was after Harry. Even if it was a case of mistaken identity, he could have just killed Ron, he has killed innocents before. His moves are methodical, and more recently, I've realized that when I confronted him, I couldn't sense any darkness in his heart."

Lupin appeared to be pondering something.

"What is it?" I inquired.

"It doesn't make sense to me either. The map has shown him appear on the grounds more than once, but it also says that he is with that cat of Miss. Granger's." he explained.

"Harry said he saw them together," I said. "Although he has no idea that Black is an animagus. And Crookshank's is the cat that has been relentlessly pursuing Ron's…" I paused.

"What is it?" he said, noticing my pause.

"That map shows animals, has it ever shown Ron's rat, Scabbers?" I asked.

"Well, no, not since I've had it," he answered.

"Has it shown any strange name on there that shouldn't be besides Black's?"

"Well…" he began apprehensively.

"Spit it out," I ordered in my regular tone, "You're talking to a shell of a person here it can't be that bad."

"The map has showed the name Peter Pettigrew on multiple occasions," he relented.

I was surprised by this, but then all of a sudden something clicked that made everything make perfect sense.

"He was an Animagus, correct?" I asked.

"Yes," Lupin answered. "He turned into a…" He drew it out as if coming to a realization.

"He turned into a rat," I finished. "More importantly, he has been stuck as a rat for the past, almost thirteen years. He is Ronald Weasley's rat. That fits. The reason Black waited for Halloween and then attacked Ron's bed was because he is after Pettigrew, not Harry."

"But I thought that his rat was eaten in the winter." Lupin said.

"We all thought that, but then Sirius came into the tower anyway. Pettigrew is still alive, he is just hiding. Sirius has been waiting to come after him." I deduced.

"But why?" Lupin pondered. "Why waste the effort."

"I wouldn't have known if you asked me an hour ago," I told him as I put my gloved hands on his desk. "Harry came into the common room after his divination exam and told me that Trelawney made a prophecy, although he doesn't know that is what it was.

I proceeded to tell him what he told me of the prophecy.

"The Dark Lord's servant being chained for twelve years," Lupin said. "Sirius got out about a year ago."

"It's barely evidence, but I am confident in saying that this plus the fact that I didn't sense an inordinate amount of darkness tells me that Sirius is innocent of his crimes from thirteen years ago," I conclude. "I think that Pettigrew framed him and has been stuck, hiding as a rat until tonight."

"We have to do something." Lupin said as he stood.

"We need to tell Dumbledore," I told him.

I turned to leave, but Lupin halted me. I turned around and he pointed at the map. Out on the grounds we saw what looked to be Sirius Black dragging Ron Weasley and Peter Pettigrew under the Willow and Harry and Hermione giving chase.

"How?" I asked.

"There is a knot under the Willow," he elaborated. "If it is pressed, the tree freezes temporarily."

"We need to go follow," I said.

I turned to leave, but I was stopped once again.

"What is that?" Lupin asked.

The thing he was referring to was the glowing in my coat. I placed my hand in my pocket and drew out an object.

"I'm out of time," I told him.

My star shard had just activated after ten months.

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**So? How was that ending. Are you guys like, "What the hell, man?" or "pfft, whatever," or "Why!" I was kinda proud of myself for ending it like that. Anyway. Leave your thoughts. I accept anonymous reviews and I always try to respond to your feedback. Just ask "TheAbsolutistsCreed," we got into a very enlightening discussion and I very much enjoyed it. And for those who are curious... I am a male. So I wanted to clear that up because most ff authors are female. Anyway. See you next week when I can finally file this story under complete.**


	11. Chapter 10

**Well guys... This is it. I present to you the last chapter of The Wings of Freedom: Volume One. I apologize for it being so short. I won't blame you for feeling ripped off. My editor did. I don't know when I will start posting Volume Two (I am almost finished with Chapter 7). I was pleasantly surprised to see my hit count jump from whatever it was last chapter to 227. I think that's about 35 more. Thank you to all of those who reviewed, favorited, or alerted this story. **

**Review Responses:**

**Persephone Rosamunde: We are not having this debate again. You are the better writer and that's final. Anyone who like Bones, Ouran High School Host Club, or Sailor Moon should totally check out some of her work. She's really good.**

**TheAbsolutistsCreed: Not much I can say that we haven't already discussed haha. Thank you for the three or four days of mental stimulis.**

**xflowersofdarkxx: I do not have a death wish, although you may wish to kill me for this chapter length.**

**Disclaimer: For the last time for this story, I own nothing.**

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Chapter 10

"Are you serious?" Lupin asked.

I held up the shard to let him see it.

"It's going to take me away any minute," I told him, "I'm sorry, Lupin, but you are gonna be on your own. You need to follow them and make sure Harry knows the truth before he does something drastic."

"Alright," he replied. "Good luck."

"Lupin, wait," I said just as he was almost out the door.

"Yes," he said with an urgent tone.

"Tell the kids that I was glad to meet them for me would you?" I requested.

"Of course," he said with a small smile.

"And one more thing," I said and he looked at me expectantly. "Thanks for the notebook, it was a nice gesture."

"How did—" he sputtered. "You know what, never mind. I hope to see you again someday."

"Likewise," I told him and he left.

I had one more thing to do. I pulled my hood up and made to follow him, only to break off once we reached the second floor. I made a mad dash to the statue guarding Dumbledore's office.

"Pixie sticks," I told it and it moved aside.

I didn't have the time for formalities, so I just opened the door and walked in. Thankfully he was alone at his desk doing what seemed to be paper work. He looked up at me and noticed that I was glowing.

"I see the time has come," he said while putting down his quill and standing.

"Yes," I told him. "The kids and Lupin are in trouble, but I think you know all about it, don't you?"

"Well," he began, "you'll find that being me has its advantages."

"Very true," I said, closing my eyes. "Anyway, thank you for your help, I appreciate it."

"Not a problem dear boy," he dismissed and I twitched a little at being called boy. "It's has been a pleasure having you here, keeping our beloved school safe."

He walked toward me and extended a hand. I took it and shook it.

"If you ever find yourself in this world again," he said. "Feel free to drop by. Hogwarts will always be a safe place for those who need it, and I'm sure your friends will want to see you again."

"I might take you up on that if I ever come back," I said.

All of a sudden, the light from my shard grew brighter and started to engulf me.

"Take my arm," he told me holding it out.

I took his arm and was overcome with the familiar vacuum feeling that comes with apparition.

"I thought it prudent to have you fly out of here from an open area," he said.

I looked to see we were on top of the Astronomy Tower. Feeling the light engulf me further I let go of his arm and ran to the edge of the tower. Once I reached the edge, I didn't stop. I took a leap and felt myself falling. I looked back up as I was falling and the last thing I saw was Dumbledore smiling down at me with that usual mischievous glint in his eyes before the light engulfed me completely.

Traveling between worlds is definitely a different experience while conscious. The feeling was similar to apparition, just without causing me to be nauseous. I couldn't see anything other than the warm light that had surrounded me and was taking me through the between. I closed my eyes and thought back on my stay in the last world. I wondered if the next one would be similar, or if it would be completely different.

I got so lost in my thoughts that I didn't notice the wind hitting my face at first. Once I did, I opened my eyes to see myself surrounded by buildings. I had obviously ended up in a city, but that was further in the distance. The area immediately around me was grassy and had trees that were seemingly placed strategically to make the area look nice. I noticed that there were sidewalks on the ground, so I decided to start walking. I don't know how long I walked for, but eventually I came across a park bench and decided to take a seat.

I had contemplated what my next move should be. I needed to get a place to stay, and I wanted to find out a little bit about the world I'm in. I was lucky enough to spot a cloak on top of a pole nearby, so I looked and saw that it was about five in the afternoon. Deciding that I would find a motel or something later, I sat back, closed my eyes, and put my hands behind my head as a cushion. I sat like that for a while until I felt people walking around me, probably on the sidewalks making their way through the parks. I paid it no mind until someone sat down next to me.

"You know," the person said, "sleeping in the park is a bad idea. If night comes and you're still here you can get mugged."

I opened my eyes and looked over to see the person sitting next to me. It was a teenager. He looked to be a few years younger than my physical age. I could tell he was tall even though he was sitting. He had orange hair that was combed up into a 'punk' pompadour style. He also had grey eyes and had about the same build I did. He was wearing what looked to be a school uniform. It was a blue jacket that was buttoned up and I'm sure he has a shirt under it, and blue pants with black shoes and belt around his waist.

"I appreciate the concern," I said flatly, "but I can take care of myself."

"You can fight?" he asked. "You look it, but that coat of yours makes you look like a poser."

"I can assure you I'm not," I told him not getting annoyed. "Do you always just randomly talk to strangers?"

"Not always," he said, "but for some reason I just felt that I had to talk to you."

"That's creepy," I said.

"Hey! Shut up!" he said, looking flustered.

"Truth hurts," I said. "How would you feel if some creepy kid came and told you he felt he needed to talk?"

"I ought to kick your butt for that," he yelled.

"Geez," I said, "relax kid, I was kidding. I don't get weirded out."

"Kid!" he shouted indignantly.

I ignored him and changed the subject.

"Is there a reason you're here?" I asked.

"Yeah," he answered. "I have a guy that went on a trip and he is supposed to be back any day now. I just don't know which day."

He took on a sheepish expression at the end of his explanation.

"Is he your friend?"

"I suppose," he said. "It's a tad complicated."

"A lot of friendships are," I said. "How old are you anyway. You look older than you speak."

"I'm fourteen," he replied immediately.

"Oh," I said.

We sat in silence for a minute.

"Well, I'd better go," I said as I lifted myself of the bench. "I'm passing through the city and I'll be sticking around a while, so maybe I'll see you again."

"Yeah," he said faintly while staring at me.

He suddenly went cross-eyed when I held out my hand.

"My name is Gnocx," I told him.

"What kind of name is that?" he asked.

"Will you just shut up and shake?" I said.

He suddenly smirked and grasped my hand.

"I'm Kazuma Kuwabara!" he announced with vigor. "The number one punk at Sarayashiki Jr. High!"

* * *

**There it is. We end with Gnocx meeting someone from this new world. If you have been paying attention, you already know where he is. About jumping off the astronomy tower... It was something whimsical that I put in. Feel free to sweatdrop and call me a fool. Please leave your thoughts. Volume Two will be likely out before the end of the month. Until then. Have a nice time while I put this story as my first competed.**


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